Hi Chris
I have about as much interest in repeating, as people have in wanting me to...meaning zero.
Suffice to say that the vast overwhelming majority of people in Aikido-to include its highest ranked Japanese Shihan, haven't nary a clue what Ueshiba even thought aiki was, much less how to do it.

For starters, he himself was discussing aiki as a union of ki in opposition within oneself to produce "The mysteries of Aiki" NOT, the later union of two people. This is being made clear in the new translations of his work. Translations that his own students couldn't even comprehend. It was simply over their heads.
Through the efforts of those same students, everyone was is left to... "trying to blend."
Full speed...in the wrong direction. Unless and until they make a dramatic shift in their approach to their art, they will never understand him, his message, or his aiki.
Dan