Don't you wish real life was just like the movies? There you are, tired like nothing else, worn down to the point that you just don't care anymore, and then some great event happens to pull you out of the depths...you leave rehearsal, and there he is, waiting for you under the silent trees in the courtyard. Without a word the two of you are drawn together, because, hey, guess what—it's in the script! It was fated that the two of you would be together, because the guy who wrote the screenplay—yeah, that guy—he thought it would be great if your characters got together. All your fantasies of fulfilling relationships, all your horror stories about relationships gone wrong, they're all there, just waiting for performance. Too bad you're not in one, eh? The infinite possibilities of the universe are there, arrayed, waiting....So the questions remain to be asked: Are you the one who fits my pattern? Are you the one whose mystical soul resonates with mine? Or are you the bit part in my script? Are you the guy who falls off the cliff halfway through the second act, never to be seen again? Hmmm... It's interesting to note that most people never become actors or actresses, at least not of any consequence. What happens to all the possibilities never explored, the roads not taken? They disappear, right? Well, not quite. Those out-of-work actors hang around, don't they, dogging at the heels... They always want this part or that—Hey, I would be absolutely perfect for— No, you wouldn't, but that doesn't matter. One can always hope, right? My stream of consciousness burns a line in the table, it doesn't matter what I write anymore, because the pattern is never completed. Rarely do we find the perfect actors for the part in this great stage that is life. We settle, don't we, for substitutes and stand-ins, the old stand-by good guys...