I’ve always been convinced that one of the greatest benefits of cycling is a spiritual benefit – the sense of appreciating the beauty of the world & feeling more connected to it as I zoom around the Port Hills. I even started the cycling church to promote this concept and wrote a somewhat flippant book called PROSACC – Profound Revelations Of Sunday Afternoon Cycling Church (here).
Sadly I haven’t managed to take over the world with a new cult of cycling church but I did note with interest the developments in Turkmenistan that hit the news 29/8/13 (link here) where the dictator of Turkmenistan, Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov is forcing the entire nation to go cycling in order to attain spiritual perfection. I am very impressed. Shame it takes a dictator to get such things happening. I’m also not quite sure that the public servants who have the cost of their new bike docked from their pay will be enjoying the state of spiritual bliss quite as much as those partaking voluntarily, but you never know – I’m sure biking long distances in a blistering hot desert must do something for your spiritual journey. Cycling through blossoms & daffodils in Hagley Park seem a little more conducive to peace & harmony to me.
I was expecting this to be about Professor Bickerton’s intriguing Cyclist’s Church at Wainoni Park…
http://lostchristchurch.org.nz/wainoni-pleasure-gardens-and-tahuna-park-1909
All I’ll add is that a bit of exercise goes a long way to improve my emotional well being, and its nice that the exercise is fun.