and all the men and women merely players.
Some are the greatest players of our lifetime. Some are the greatest players the world has ever known.
This time of year is unique in that all different types of elite sports converge and overlap their seasons in the early to late spring. To name the most well known,
- MLB baseball season
- NHL hockey playoffs
- NBA basketball playoffs
- college basketball’s March Madness
- the Boston Marathon
- Masters golf tournament
- Premier League Soccer finals
- NFL draft
Take sports for what they are at their core. If you can get yourself to strip away the politics, money, advertising… all the pomp and circumstance of professional sports these days, you can find some gems. These should be treasured, as they are arguably some of the most impressive physical, mental, and emotional feats performed by human beings.
Yet, we are all “merely players.”
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. At first, the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms.
Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slippered pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.
– William Shakespeare, As You Like It, Act II, Scene VII