When life casts foreign actors into your drama, they can sometimes be like cardboard cutouts, existing quietly in two dimensions, marching from their stage left entrance through the brief but glaring spotlight of attention and then quickly off into the shadows of forgetfulness, to perform in someone else's spectacle. Other times, they stick around for a while, striking some poses, saying some words, asking some questions, changing some ideas, leaving behind babies or broken hearts or broken bones or other not so needy things. Eventually they all exit stage right, when the spotlight filament collapses or the shadow magnetism grows too strong.