The Source for Aikido Information AikiWeb's principal purpose is to serve the Internet community as a repository and dissemination point for aikido information. What the sender intends to send must be encoded. The decoding algorithm must be the same. The transmission is also problematic in that we are often clueless as to the non-verbal messages that Shihan give as they talk.
Communication is a matter of perception.
And they probably both got the correct message. The same message was intended to be interpreted differently be each of those two people. Many of the Shihan talk about harmony in Aikido. A gentle person interprets that harmony in terms of gentleness and caring for all living things. Both are harmonious but each of the sides will disagree with the other's harmoniousness.