Aikido has definantly helped me, but that is because I make the effort for it to help me. Otherwise it would be worthless.
Aikido, like any other thing that claims to produce a better life, is not in and of it self the producer of a better life. It is up to the person to use that tool to provide oneself with a better life.
I chose aikido for two reasons. The first was to return to something where I found peace and that was martial arts (I took TKD as a kid and loved it.) And so I studied up and choose aikido. The second reason was for the physical reasons of exercise and self-defense.
Have I found these in aikido? Yes, but that is because I made that so.
I could very easily have chosen painting, playing the flute or oboe (solo or group), or dancing. All of these I have done and which would have fulfilled my first reason described above.
Also aikido has been a way for me to materialize the intellectual. For many years, I have been a thinker and pseudo-philosopher. But knowing and understanding are two different things. Aikido has allowed me to bridge the gap. I am on that bridge now and plan to travel it to wherever it takes me.
The bridge a person chooses to take is up to them, it will lead us all to the same place in the end. So just because Aikido is good for me it doesn't mean it's necessarily good for the other person. Hence Old Obi-wan Kenobi's query in Star Wars (Ep. IV-A New Hope), "Who is more foolish? The Fool or the Fool who follows him?"
Anne Marie
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