[alyasa]

Inadequacy -
or guilt.
True, just because someone has spent most of their life as a philanthropist, doesn't mean it will make up for being a Nazi sympathizer during WWII. Similarly, the morphine chick doesn't automatically become absolved for a life hiding behind drugs, because she gives it up at the last moment. You do have to face up to your past before you can look to your future, a fundamental nature of man. You have to overcome yourself, before you can overcome any external obstacles. The morphine chick would have had a lifetime of opportunities to become a better person, but she only chose until it was too late to pursue a goal, that by then, would have lost its significance anyway. All the more reason, I believe, for dreams to be kept, like a treasured photograph, or a memory of better times. What better motivation would there be to climb up out of the heap?