Humor is always based on a modicum of truth. Have you ever heard a joke about a father-in-law?
When we lose one we love, our bitterest tears are called forth by the memory of hours when we loved not enough.
The lesson which life repeats and constantly enforces is 'look under foot.' You are always nearer the divine and the true sources of your power than you think.
What makes the engine go? Desire, desire, desire.
Over the years your bodies become walking autobiographies, telling friends and strangers alike of the minor and major stresses of your lives.
The pain of making the necessary sacrifices always hurts more than you think it's going to. I know. It sucks. That being said, doing something seriously creative is one of the most amazing experiences one can have, in this or any other lifetime. If you can pull it off, it's worth it. Even if you don't end up pulling it off, you'll learn many incredible, magical, valuable things. It's NOT doing it when you know you full well you HAD the opportunity- that hurts FAR more than any failure.
I cannot believe that the inscrutable universe turns on an axis of suffering; surely the strange beauty of the world must somewhere rest on pure joy!