Aikido is not a religion, where the value of activity lies in the reverence of a greater being. Nor is it dance or art where the merit of the activity is validated by the art created.

 The question “why Aikido?”  Is an interesting question in the fact that it relies on Aikido to justify itself.  What I mean by this, is not what is good about Aikido relative to some other activity, but what is good about Aikido relative to itself.  Maybe a good way to understand this is to examine what Aikido is not.  Aikido is not a competitive sport, which can determine its relevance by wins or losses.  Aikido is not a religion, where the value of activity lies in the reverence of a greater being.  Nor is it dance or art where the merit of the activity is validated by the art created.  Since Aikido does not strive to win, or worship, and it does not validates itself by creating beauty, where does its value lie. 

Since Aikido is not about these things, it allows it to be about something else.  To me, (and this is the great thing about Aikido) is that the "to me" is a unique experience. Anyway to me Aikido is the study of appropriateness.  The premise of Aikido is that it is a structural art ? the head needs to be over the shoulders, the shoulders aligned with the hips, the hips need to be in relationship with the knees, the knees with the ankles, and the ankles with the feet.  The body in short needs to be held appropriately.  When the body is appropriately aligned, it can move in spirals, a spiral does not have appendages which mean that the hands and arms always need to keep their alignment with the body.