Reason to Carry On, A

A hand comes out to pick you up, you get up, fall down again, but the hand is always there.

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Henry, a cockney arsonist and psychopath, was the catalyst to Vony’s enlightenment. Ironically, she started out as the teacher and ended up as Eliza Doolittle, the naïve student. Perhaps Henry’s unwitting mission was to help others by telling their story. Angry at a God following the death of a sibling, Vony initially rejected religion. Eventually she realized that religion, science and philosophy are compatible; without investigating them all, the answer to a meaningful life would be incomplete. As an exercise therapist teaching classes for psychiatric offenders, as well as in nursing homes for people living out their final furlong, Vony met Henry. In her work she encountered individuals of all ages with mental, physical and emotional disabilities in contrast to socializing with the rich and famous. She sought to understand them all through a looking glass of behavioral psychology, Bible studies, philosophy, poetry, Eastern religions, spiritualists, psychics and astrologers. Whatever their weaknesses or limitations, everyone is similar at their core, and the same universal, simple truths apply to finding a meaningful life for them all.