I was born on December 30, 1948 in
Genk (Belgium).
Like 99% of all Belgians, I was
baptized as a Catholic and indoctrinated less by my parents than by my school
and youth club. I was brought up by my parents to be nice and totally
unremarkable. So it took a long time for me to overcome my naivety. But before
I got that far, I was married and had
two children so it was more a question of daily survival than philosophising. A
marriage based on an unintended pregnancy and mutual naivety is not usually
understood as a solid foundation for a long-term relationship.
In my second marriage, I learnt by
example, how dependence can turn to personal ruin.
In my professional life, by
contrast things turned for the better – also in terms of my spiritual
development. I spent 15 years in customer service. Although we were working on
a contract basis, which provided me with a financial foundation, I took the
time to carefully observe the people around me. A lot of my customers took the
chance to confess things to me. They found it easier to talk of their needs
with a complete stranger. Over the course of time I gathered more and more
experience and slowly came to recognize the way one had to go to be happy and
satisfied in life. And so I became a “cheerful atheist” and this has provided
the foundation for a relationship that has lasted 20 years so far.
I don’t want to
keep this for myself – besides, life is better when the world around me is
happy and satisfied. That is why I wrote this book.