Enduring Privations

Little privations are easily endured when the heart is better treated than the body. ~ Jean Jacques Rousseau

Privation. The dictionary calls it
a state in which things
that are essential
for human well-being
such as food and warmth
are scarce or lacking.
How can the lack of essentials
be little, be easily endured?
What is essential? Candy?
Ice cream? Pastries?
I've thought so. I've acted so.
But those are not needs of the head
though the obsession is there.
No, what the head needs is comfort,
a sense of well-being, serenity, love.
And when once those things brought such
they no longer do. They drive the good away.
Such privations are dispensable
if the absence of them now brings
the intended result here and now.