Coping Mechanisms

[Flint]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

But if a year or three from now, she suddenly realizes the dream was not valid and freaks out...

Why would the passage of time erode this belief for her? It isn't logical thought or analysis (that would take time to process) that will undo the belief. And as she goes on with her life, and builds from this point, she invests more and more in this new way of seeing the world. When people are invested in something, they don't want to change it...I've seen people illogically invested in the most trivial things simply because it "works" for them--are bigger things easier or harder to overturn? She would have to have a motivation to want to change this belief. What would be the motivation? If anything, it could only be her own subconscious mind, cracking the facade of her serenity and letting an anxious feeling creep in which would lead to a desire to self-analyze. Whether what she has done is "right" or "wrong" I can see a scenario where she never has this desire to "overturn" the decision. And, I could see that working for her, from now until the end of her life, no matter what other people think about it.

Maybe when she's 90 she'll laugh about what she did, and understand it, and be past it making any difference to her equilibrium at that point.