Practicing Peace

I normally don't get "preachy", but sometimes something must be said.

Aikido is sometimes called "the art of peace". There is no competition in Aikido.
The emphasis is on creating harmony between "uke" (attacker) and "nage" (defender). You could say we are practicing a way of bringing peace into our lives. In time, the peace we feel in the dojo pervades other areas of our lives.

Having come from a background in "hard style" martial arts and trained with a lot of different schools, there are some obvious differences. In many schools, there are macho egotistical types, very competitive, and sometimes even violent in their lives outside of training.
Now, almost all senseis discourage this sort of thing, but my point is that our training affects everything we do: the way we deal with friends and family, how we approach conflict, how we think of ourselves, and literally every interaction with another person.

Peace must be practiced, as it is not human nature to be peaceful. Violence has been a part of human history from the beginning. In order to move beyond conflict we all need to practice what makes us peaceful.