EP47 Is Aikido an Art? - The Aiki Dojo Podcast -  

Great podcast, you inspire me every time to practise another 30yrs. Domo arigato

This was a good topic and you both covered it well. A lot to digest and a deep subject. As for an "Art" on the basic view, yes with as you mentioned shu ha ri and that progression and having fundamentals and that process that "art" can be thought of that spontaneous application of Aikido to a situation which contains the sum greater than the whole and expressed as the DO. Keep up the interesting topics.

You speak as if today's American youth are "soft". They're NOT soft. They just have different challenges and things to worry about than our generation had. We weren't "tougher" than they are. Let's stop this type of criticism of today's generation. Keep talking like this, and that is why they come up with phrases such as, "Ok Boomer!". Keep talking like this, keep putting them down, and you will become irrelevant to them. I always tell people my age, who seem to enjoy criticizing the younger generations, "Whether you like it or not, they will be the ones changing your adult diapers, putting a bib around your neck, and spoon-feeding you pureed carrots when you're in that nursing home.....so, instead of constantly criticizing them about how 'soft' they are or how 'easy they have it', and instead constantly telling them stories of 'When I was your age, I had to walk 5-miles to school, work 30 hrs per week, cook my own dinner, yada, yada, yada', why not spend your time encouraging them, building them up, teaching them things, and ALSO LEARNING FROM THEM?" When I was growing up in the 70's, I didn't have to worry about a person showing up at a school, a movie theatre, my college campus, or a church, pulling out a gun and shooting people. Well, this type of thing is VERY REAL for "today's generation". You talk about the Spartans. If you had a time machine, and you brought a Spartan into the present day, and he saw the Las Vegas shooting where a single man killed over 50 people, and wounded hundreds upon hundreds more in just MINUTES, and if he witnessed 9/11, and saw the planes crash into the World Trade Center, instantly killing thousands, if he witnessed the Virginia Tech Shootings, Columbine, the Uvalde shooting, etc., you can be certain that Spartan would return to his people, and speak of the horrific violence and carnage that he witnessed in this horrific and dangerous place called "America in the 21st century". An 8-year old Spartan child had to worry about stealing his own food in order to be able to eat. That was a challenge. A kid today, growing up in "any town USA" has to watch a news story, on CNN or Fox News about how a lone gunman entered an elementary school and slaughtered 10 kids in a town 50-miles from where he lives, then, THE VERY NEXT DAY he has to go to school, pass thru metal detectors, and sit in the same type of classroom. Humans will always have fears, challenges, and obstacles. It's just that todays' challenges are different than they were 20 years ago, 50 years ago, 200. years ago, or in 400 B.C. Think about this....