All manner of things seem to "run in the family" - hair color, musical talent, as well as all manner of violent behavior. Including verbal violence

I do like these principles of "Verbal Aikido":

Speech-attacks, like any other form of aggressive behavior, imply both a victim and a perpetrator. Philosophically speaking, there is little difference between this form of hostile word-use and a physical attack. Aikido, in the larger sense, concerns itself with identification and neutralization of both these types of aggression.

While practicing Aikido on the mat, we learn to recognize and harmonize with an opponent's attack in such a way as to avoid any harm to ourselves, and wherever possible, to avoid injuring the attacker. Aikido is, in this way, a self-defense which implies neither victory nor defeat. the terms "victory" and "defeat" belong to the field of competition and are operative where conflict of interest exists.

Aikido does not deal with reality in a mutually exclusive, dualistic manner. To define Aikido as "the art of no-defeat" is not a mere semantic game. We, as speakers of the English language and, consequently, children of Aristotelian thought, are accustomed to viewing the phenomenal world in terms of polar opposites, ie., "good-evil," "plus-minus," "off-on," etc. The power of this procedural mode has been dramatically demonstrated by man's vast attainments in the fields of science and technology which are based on the scientific method.

Nonetheless, there are many areas in which this method of perceiving reality is inappropriate, inefficient, and tension-producing. there are aspects of interpersonal relationships, for example, where viewing things in a binary, "either-or" fashion can defeat communication and perpetuate conflict.


Sounds so familiar   *sigh*


mew