Aikido is a martial art of self-defense. It is the Art of Peace practiced through “war,” because we cannot understand peace in the absence of conflict, nor silence in the absence of noise. And in order to master our art, we need aggressors who challenge us with increasingly complex problems as we advance in our training. We, Aikido practitioners, respect our attackers, whether they meet us on the tatami, on the asphalt, or in the virtual dojo. Without them, we would be traini