My husband and I were watching Smallville the other night. That's the show about the younger life of Clark Kent, aka Superman. As we watched the opening sequences, Andrew noticed one of the old cast members is no longer in it.

"Why did they get rid of him?" I asked.

"Oh, he was just the guy who knew Superman's identity, and now they can't do anything else with him," Andrew said.

Got me to thinking... in any story in any medium the protagonist is always a complex creature but the people around him can usually be summed up in a sentence. "She's her best friend/confidante." "He's the well-meaning but difficult father." "The boyfriend who's over-protective."

It's rare to see a movie or read a book where all the cast are equally unique, complex, special people, each with their own story to tell. In fact, the words 'support cast' sum up how most stories are told.

Is this because we each see our lives with ourselves as the centre and everyone else around us, even those nearest and dearest as just 'the support cast'? Do we so easily reduce everyone else down to a sentence?