​​The world of Aikido is not a unified one.  Discrepancies abound concerning the art’s curriculum, the art’s pedagogy, the art's strategic and tactical assumptions, the art’s history, the Founder’s biography, etc.  The position that a practitioner in the end adopts as his or her own is from the beginning merely that: a position.  

This is not to say that everything is Aikido or that nothing is Aikido.  We should not wish to rob ourselves of our capacity to judge things appropriately.  The ambiguity of Aikido is merely the natural consequence of two relative elements.  It comes from the practice of mind-to-mind transmission (by which each teacher stamps his/her personality upon the art as much as his/her personality is stamped by the art), and the fact that Aikido is, among other things, an art form (which allows one to use the limitations of Aikido in both supporting and subverting manners).
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Nevertheless, because Aikido is also a matter of spiritual cultivation, it is important that we remain as discerning in our adopting of one position over another (since many are in direct conflict with each other) as we remain accepting of Aikido’s capacity to be many things to many people.  Not all positions are equal.  We must value those that are internally consistent over those that are internally inconsistent.  We must give value to those that include self-reflection as a supporting mechanism within their position and not give value to those that seek to avoid self-reflection as if it were a plague.  We must admire a capacity to deconstruct one’s own position.  We must honor a willingness to be self-critical.  We must turn toward those positions that can demonstrate both the relevance and scholastic accuracy of history and turn away from those that cannot.
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Personal preference should not be our motor for decision when it comes to adopting a position as one's own.  Nor should we allow institutional weight to silence our tongues and dull our minds, such that we come to accept simply what is put before us.  Rather, we must engage the multiplicity of Aikido with all of our capacities.  For example, we must ground our intellect in experience as we ground our experience in our intellect.  By such actions, position can become perspective.  Though perspective remains a relative construct, it can come to carry an air of authenticity - one it gains by its own capacity to self-legitimate, to be at peace with itself in a sea of difference.  
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Aikido Perspectives is a collection of writings that carry within them the positions and perspectives held by Valadez Sensei and that are found within the Aikido that is practiced at Senshin Center.