Thomas Hontelez: Walking to Wisdom (interview)
On a pilgrimage to Istanbul (by bike/on foot), philosophy teacher Thomas Hontelez (1989) learned a number of lessons that he wrote down in his book: ‘Walking to wisdom’. Thomas Hontelez is chairman of our Supervisory Board and I interviewed him about his book. On 2 May at 19.00h he will present this while walking from the Stevens Church in Nijmegen.
Ice cream
“For me, pilgrimage is a pressure cooker of life where you go through all kinds of phases of life at breakneck speed: how do you deal with setbacks? If you are tired and wet from the rain, while your goal was to run well: how do you deal with that? There’s a sweltering sun and you’re in the mood for ice cream, but you can’t get it anywhere. Such a confrontation helps you to let go of expectations and to be open to what is coming – even if it is different from what you wish for.”
[Lachend] “That situation is a daily occurrence for me. As a teacher, I often think: I’m going to inspire the youngsters! And then I see them all looking at their phones. It’s always a search for the right mode to deal with that and the experience on my trip to Istanbul helps me with that.”
People like to help
“Along the way, I learned to appreciate two pilgrim values: simplicity and openness. As a pilgrim you are forced to be simple: you can take few things with you and therefore have to live simply. That automatically means you have to be open to help along the way. This requires an open attitude towards people you meet.
In southern Germany, for example, I calculated how much money I had left for the coming period. My conclusion: not enough to make it to Istanbul. I couldn’t take it anymore and walked with my soul under my arm. Until, after a road through the woods, a boy came running towards me. He was a tall, lanky boy who suddenly emerged from a meadow. He had come from Berlin on his way to Lake Constance. He said that he traveled without money in his pocket and yet lived like a king. Of course I looked up at him a bit suspiciously, but less than fifteen minutes later a cyclist stopped next to us. The man asked what we were doing and gave us both €10,- .
I think it’s special that someone just comes up with an answer to what you’re struggling with. The guy who gave us money thought we were practicing an old German tradition of hiking – the Walts – but that doesn’t matter. I have learned here and later on the route that people are happy to help. You can be open to what people offer without asking: can I accept that? That was a real eye-opener.”

Law of the Jungle
“I would like to see those pilgrim values of simplicity and openness reflected in society as well. That’s kind of the mission of Walking to Wisdom. Am I hopeful?
Yes, I believe so. There is a whole hype of minimizing and decluttering, people realize that they don’t need much to be happy. I don’t know how durable that is, but it’s great that it’s widely supported. I vWonder if we’re getting more open. But the fact that we sympathize with the victims of an attack in New Zealand – that shows solidarity with people we do not know.
The nice thing about pilgrimage is that you get to know people you wouldn’t otherwise get to know. I was often warned at the border for people across the border: watch out there! The people are unreliable! While in practice, people are the same everywhere. They want to help everywhere. In Bulgaria, for example, the wheel flew off my cart. I got some food in a shop, while a little later a contractor drove up with a van to help me. When I walked into a village in Turkey a little later with a wheel in my hand, the same thing happened. In no time there were 30 people around me. The iman joined. It was fixed.
If you show your vulnerability and give them the opportunity to help, people everywhere will react the same. The wet of the jungle? Look at the guinea pigs in our house. They often argue, but if one of them is submissive, it’s done. No more fighting. Maybe it’s not a bad thing if the other person is the boss for once, you’re also in a foreign country. That’s when humility comes in.”
Walk of Wisdom
“When I came back from Istanbul I had been far away, but I thought, hey, what I’ve been through, you don’t necessarily have to go far for that. How nice it is if you can also have that experience in your backyard. I then came into contact with the Walk of Walk of Wisdom.
You may wonder what the point is of a marked pilgrimage route with symbols. Simplicity is: pack your bag and walk! But that is difficult in practice.
One of my lessons as a pilgrim was: always put a dot on the horizon. Pilgrimage is not the same as wandering, a pilgrim has a destination. The physical destination is a reason to get closer to yourself, to mourn, to quit smoking – whatever. A marked pilgrimage route will help you get moving. It helps that you walk in the footsteps of others and that you don’t have to think at every turn: am I going left or right here? The marker allows you to stay closer to your goal along the way. “
A monkey god
Together with other philosophy of life teachers, Thomas is offering a guided pilgrimage as an alternative school trip. For example, the young people can choose: Rome, Paris, rafting or on a pilgrimage.
“The young people at my school do want to think about themselves and the world, but at an appropriate distance. Not too far away from them: they don’t find that interesting. Not too close: they are teenagers, they are not going to put their whole heart and soul on the table. Of course, it’s also a bit scary to look at yourself sincerely. The challenge for me is to show that a little vulnerability is OK. In the classroom I’m I’m still trying to figure out how to do that, but the basis is to focus on experience instead of knowledge. In Christianity I not only discuss themes such as original sin, but I also ask what religion is all about according to them. You will get beautiful answers: ‘silence’. ‘Turn inwards’.
After high school, I went to Trinidad to meditate with a Hindu teacher. There I had a wonderful experience: iI had flown halfway across the world with a lot of other Dutch people for a piece of spirituality, while the churches in our own country were empty. There I listened to stories that were fine in themselves, but the story of the monkey god Hanuman was even further removed from me than Jesus who was crucified for my sins and rose from the dead.
I wondered: what’s going on? There is something about the church that makes people stop going there, while the question of meaning has remained. With that question in mind, I started studying Religious Studies.
I don’t really know if I got an answer during my studies. I find it fascinating that very limited information is taken from Hinduism and Buddhism that is useful, while the rest is left out. Dutch culture is probably still too intertwined with Christianity to do the same with that religion. I do see that a new generation is growing up that is freer. It doesn’t matter to my students: Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism. They are all religions. They have much less of a stigma attached to the church than the elderly.
I think the trend of pilgrimage fulfills a need to look for questions like ‘who am I?’ outside of religious beliefs. Questions of meaning that are still important.“
Walking to Wisdom – book presentation
“Walking to Wisdom: lessons for the pilgrim” – a (walking) book presentation, Thursday 2 May at 19.00h in the Stevenskerk in Nijmegen. Sign up (free): [email protected]. More: walking book presentation. A starter pack for the Walk of Wisdom will be raffled off among the attendees.
More about Thomas Hontelez
Thomas also has a personal website: TrekkingThomas.
