Pain and sweat.

Most of work, most relationships, most pursuits have huge amounts of mundane in them.

The raising of the flag on Iwo Jima was a culmination. Not an instance. The horror leading up to the glory killed thousands.

Even the millions paid to an actor for a few seconds of commercial work is usually earned, in essence, over twenty or forty years.

In short, much of work is crap.

Humiliating.

Depressing.

Nasty, brutish and shorn of meaning.

But here's the thing: you have to do it. You have to slog it out. You have to show up.

Tennessee Williams said it this way in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof."

"The truth is pain and sweat...paying bills and making love to a woman
that you don't love anymore.

"The truth is dreams that don't come true...and nobody prints your name
in the paper till you die."

That's right.

Work isn't glory and Shutters and trophies and fanfare.

It's pain and sweat.

That's what the prima donnas don't get.

And never will.