All the World's a Stage

There is a Nokia advertisement starring the actor Gary Oldman where he goes around filming everyday scenes and at the end, he recited this line, "All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players." I thought the line sounds really familiar and with the ever wonderful internet at my fingertips I found out that it came from (predictably) Shakespeare's "As You Like It"
The slightly longer and more meaningful version as follows:

"All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages”

This was actually the beginning of a soliloquy which went on and on for some time, elaborating on the so-called seven stages of man. Even without reading the rest, I think that the first five stanzas are really classic. Little wonder that Shakespeare is The Bard. Drawing inspiration from this, I have long thought of life to be like a stage, and all the people that have crossed into our lives are the actors and actresses. During the course of the play, some of them would be at the limelight and be the most important characters to us at a certain point in time. They would dominate the dialogue and the scene. Some would stay for a few scenes, while others would vanish as quickly as they appear. But at the end of the day, if life is but a stage, then the exit and entry of actors and actresses would lie ultimately with the script. The stage has as little power to stay the actors and actresses as the tree has the power to make the falling leaves come back.