Plays within a play

There are many analogies to describe a life lived ... for me a series of plays within a play feels right. Plays are of course stories, which more often than not begin with a beginning and end with an end, although every now and then they start at the end and go to the beginning. I have to admit I like those types of "deconstructions", because it's like eating your dessert first and working back to your salad. Something you should do every now and then just because. Either way the heavy lifting is always in the middle. Back to my analogy, I could have just stopped at saying life is like a play, or your life is a story, but I think that does all the bits in the middle an injustice. More than simply subordinate acts to the sweeping epic of your life, the various parts in between the proverbial beginning and end (regardless of the order in telling) are in themselves little dramas that I believe are worthy of their own beginnings and ends. By treating these moments of your life as distinct morsels you can better savour them, enjoy them for what they were, and not what each vignette could have been or should have been. You see that's the problem with treating your moments in time as subordinate clauses to the paragraph of life. One is often tempted to do the impossible, and re-write them or worse give them greater meaning than they deserve. If only I had done this, then that would have happened. Oh, really? A fatalist wouldn't see it that way, and neither would I.

Rather it seems to me that each little play had its protagonist, supporting cast, extras, a stage and even an audience. You could have been at once all these things. You played your role whether you were aware of its character or not. Each performance adding something to the whole and each, once played, is what it was. To dismiss these subordinate moments or favour them above others, is to either throw away bits of your life or exaggerate them beyond truth, and in doing so deny them as well. I try to see these vignettes, no matter how mundane or trivial, as moments in time, ingredients essential to the whole, but no less or more important than the ultimate product or the other ingredients.

While admittedly I don’t always succeed, I try to embrace all of these little life plays and my roles within them whether protagonist, supporting actor, bit player, or extra, for the unique perspective, knowledge and awareness each creates.

PS: You may wish to consider as well the real possibility that for the most part the roles that will make up your legacy are those that support the performances of others.