Talking Dutch: God will see you now
Thinking you’re God behind the wheel makes you a better driver and maybe even a better person, according to a Porsche owner in West Flanders
Derek Blyth on the Messiah complex
God is een psychiater en woont in het West-Vlaamse Beernem – God is a psychiatrist and lives in Beernem in West Flanders, the newspaper explained. And God appeared to be suffering from a midlife crisis, judging from his number plate.
Psychiater Tom Herregodts rijdt rond met een wel heel opvallende gepersonaliseerde nummerplaat – psychiatrist Tom Herregodts drives around with a number plate you can’t help noticing. No number. Just three red letters – GOD.
De plaat was een cadeautje van zijn vrouw – The number plate was a present from his wife voor zijn vijftigste verjaardag – for his 50th birthday.
Al heb ik wel gekozen wat er op de nummerplaat moest komen – I had already decided what I wanted on the number plate, explained Herregodts. Mijn vrouw vreesde dat ze het nooit zouden aanvaarden – My wife feared they would never accept it. Maar het was geen problem – But it wasn’t a problem.
No bones
You might want to know why any sane person would want to pay €2,000 – the current fee for a personalised number plate – to pretend you are God. De psychiater zelf ziet er geen graten in – The psychiatrist himself didn’t see the problem with it, said De Standaard, using the Dutch expression geen graten in, which literally says he didn’t see any bones in it. In fact, he thought it was a really good idea.
Wie zich één dag als God gedraagt of voelt – Someone who spends a whole day behaving like God or believing they are God gaat er psychologisch op vooruit – is engaging in psychologically positive behaviour.
Het is zalig om je voor te stellen dat je God bent – It’s heavenly to set yourself up as God, explained Herregodts. Je laat mensen vlotter doorgaan – You let people join the traffic more easily, maakt je minder snel kwaad – don’t get angry so quickly en rijdt net correcter en attenter – and drive with more care and consideration. If he had his way, we would all drive like God.
Meanwhile, a few kilometres away, the owners of another high-performance Porsche were being prosecuted for letting their son get behind the wheel. De ouders lieten hun 9-jarige zoon met een snelheid van 106 kilometer per uur door de bebouwde kom in het West-Vlaamse Jabbeke rijden – The parents had allowed their nine-year-old son to drive at a speed of 106kph through the residential streets of Jabbeke in West Flanders.
Weerzinwekkend – Outrageous, the public prosecutor declared. Dat er hier geen ongevallen gebeurd zijn is puur toeval – The fact that it didn’t end in an accident is pure luck.
Although some might say it was all down to God.
Photo: Ingimage
