Edit

Edit: Prepare for publication or presentation by correcting, revising or adapting.

Some people would say that life could be compared to a play. Each Act describes a various stage within our life such as Primary School and High School. The scenes describing the sub-units within each Act, such as Year 1 or Year 8. The first scene is our birth and our play’s last scene is our death.

If life is a play, shouldn’t we, as the play writers, decide what is incorporated into it, the stage directions, dialogue, characters and the plot? Shouldn’t we edit the play before it is shown in front of an audience?

Unfortunately, we are unable to edit our play. So some extent we have control over who should be in our play, our lives, what we say and do and how the plot pans out. But we have no control over the past; the previous Acts and Scenes.
Unlike a film, we cannot go back and edit the film before it is displayed to an audience. We cannot practice living our lives over and over again until we have perfected it.

I wish that I could edit my life, my past and my experiences so that it is fit for publication. I wish that I could correct my mistakes, revise my future before performing it and adapting my life to suit my standards.
But this is not so. You cannot edit the past. You cannot edit the future because it is unknown.

Actors know the entire dialogue, stage directions and plot for the play they perform. They have practiced and practiced in order to build up their character.

In a way this does relate to us. Throughout our play, we grow as a character and establish relationships with other characters. We are the protagonist, and we have enemies; antagonists. There are minor characters in our lives that do not change who we are, and then we have those characters that are important to our plot line, and our characterisation.

So I guess, in my opinion, a play could be a metaphor for life.
I only wish that we could edit our play.

I shall leave you with the inspiration for this blog.

“It is not my intention to give away the plot; but i think I die at the end.” – W;t by Margaret Edson (page 2).

“This is my play’s last scene, here heavens appoint
My pilgrimages last mile; and my race
Idly, yet quickly run, hath this last pace,
My spans last inch, my minutes last point,
And gluttonous death will instantly unjoint
My body, and soul...” an excerpt from Holy Sonnet – This is My Play’s Last Scene by John Donne.