I ride my bicycle, 1 = 1, and that is that.

A couple of weeks ago, a friend who I've ridden bikes with for 15+ years but who has been recently busy with family matters emailed and asked how the training was going.  It was a friendly question, he basically meant "how's the riding going?" in his usual style, but it made me ponder just why the hell I'm always riding, even through mid-August in the heat and bugs at the Gulf coast end of the MS-LA border.  I'm certainly not training for anything particular.  Which made me think of this story:

A Zen proverb about bicycling:

A Zen teacher saw five of his students returning from the market, riding their bicycles.  When they arrived at the monastery and dismounted their bicycles, the teacher asked the students, "Why are you riding your bicycles?"

The first student said, "It is the bicycle that is carrying the sack of potatoes.  I am glad that my back has escaped the pain of bearing the weight"

The teacher was glad and said, "You are a smart boy.  When you become old you will be saved of a hunch back unlike me."

The second student had a different answer.  “I love to have my eyes over the trees and the sprawling fields as I go riding," he said.  The teacher commented, "You have your eyes open and you see the world."

The third student came up with yet a different answer and said, "When I ride I am content to chant 'nam myoho renge kyo.'"

The teacher spoke these words of appreciation, "Your mind will roll with ease like a newly trued wheel."

The fourth student said, "Riding my bicycle I live in perfect harmony of things."  The pleased teacher said, "You are actually riding the golden path of non-harming or non-violence."

The fifth student said, "I ride my bicycle to ride my bicycle."

The teacher walked up to him and sat at his feet and said, "I am your disciple!"

I have no idea where it came from, it's been floating around for at least 15 years.  I first came across it in Zap Espinoza's column in the semi-late Mountain Bike magazine.  (Semi-late?  It's been folded in as part of Bicycling magazine.)  The above version was shamelessly cut and pasted from this site.
Anyway, that last student's answer as good a reason as any to ride, and probably the closest to why I do.  Why do you ride?