It was a beautiful day to mark
As a pioneer of the Walk of Wisdom , I’m glad our itinerary doesn’t revolve around the Great Example of a holy helmsman. I still have a long way to go on the path to inner wisdom. Today I walked a bit with new marker Gerard van der Wielen.
We met at the Landwinkel in the Mookerheide Hunting Lodge. A small supermarket full of local products that is run by an accessible, long-retired farmer who is still busy every day: “My wife and I tried it out: a day of cycling together. I didn’t like it. I’m a farmer. I want to work.” The Landwinkel is one of the pick-up points for our bird rings and you can get coffee there for a voluntary contribution when the café next door is closed.
Gerard generously puts a penny in the coffee cup and we hit the road. I turn to him and see a man in his early fifties. I can’t believe he’s really much older and check it again. That’s right: “three quarters”.
It’s great to see how much energy people can use to grow old. Gerard is also still working. After he sold his own installation company, he works almost every week as a freelancer “eight to ten clients.” He is an avid cyclist and used to go on a big tour every weekend. A cycling trip to Hungary or Russia is no problem and he estimates – after some insistence – his cycled kilometers at “10 times around the world”.
We don’t talk much about feelings or life lessons, but go through his marker at our leisure. He has been touring the area on a mountain bike with friends for forty years and halfway through he takes me with him, slightly off the route. In the middle of the forest, away from the paths, we are at the edge of a huge pit where a WWII kite crashed. The place is an oasis of autumn foliage and all around trees tend over the hollow. Tranquility and beauty all around.
“We need to attract young people!” people sometimes say to me. I like the fact that the Walk of Walk of Wisdom is about experience. You’ll find them more in older people. They have the time to let the race take the lead and to let the many impressions of their life’s journey mature into something of reconciliation and peace. I like to meet people like that.
I look back at Gerard. Fit and healthy, relaxed friendly. Some time ago he told me that he believed in the eleventh commandment: “You shall enjoy.” He has already lost ten cycling friends and praises every day that comes.
When marking, Gerard gets a taste for it with a refined sticking technique: he carefully irons the sticker on the lamppost from the middle “to prevent air bubbles.” Another part of the route in loving hands.
Thank you Gerard!
Heumensoord, Walk of Wisdom
