Today is the last day of 5771. As such (of course) it is the last Thought for the Day posting by me for this year. So... a short retrospective.
I started writing these thoughts as a way for me to solidify for myself the "catch as catch can" learning I try to do outside of my normal seder of learning and when I find spare moments. The fact that you are interested in reading these thoughts has been very motivating. First, writing (almost) daily entries forces me to really, really learn something new and substantive each day. More than that, however, I spend a lot more of my "idle" time (biking, for instance) thinking and mulling over whatever I am learning. It takes a lot of time to boil a thought down to a couple of paragraphs, and that is time very well spent. By the time I have worked on a thought until it is ready for dissemination, I have had to really understand what it is I have learned. It has also been interesting to me how often I start writing one thing and it turns into something quite different than I had imagined. Very cool.
The biggest benefit to me personally is that I am forced to live up to what I said. I have, Baruch HaShem, a decent memory, but I am not bad at selectively remembering things to my advantage. Once it is written, however, I am much more constrained. Since I can't stomach (for long) saying one thing and doing another, I end up changing my behavior for the better. For that alone I need to express my hakaras hatov to everyone who reads this. I also appreciate your comments. I don't always respond, but a few comments/questions/criticisms have turned into new posts. Halavei veiter.
Acharon acharon chaviv: K'siva v'Chasima Tova
I started writing these thoughts as a way for me to solidify for myself the "catch as catch can" learning I try to do outside of my normal seder of learning and when I find spare moments. The fact that you are interested in reading these thoughts has been very motivating. First, writing (almost) daily entries forces me to really, really learn something new and substantive each day. More than that, however, I spend a lot more of my "idle" time (biking, for instance) thinking and mulling over whatever I am learning. It takes a lot of time to boil a thought down to a couple of paragraphs, and that is time very well spent. By the time I have worked on a thought until it is ready for dissemination, I have had to really understand what it is I have learned. It has also been interesting to me how often I start writing one thing and it turns into something quite different than I had imagined. Very cool.
The biggest benefit to me personally is that I am forced to live up to what I said. I have, Baruch HaShem, a decent memory, but I am not bad at selectively remembering things to my advantage. Once it is written, however, I am much more constrained. Since I can't stomach (for long) saying one thing and doing another, I end up changing my behavior for the better. For that alone I need to express my hakaras hatov to everyone who reads this. I also appreciate your comments. I don't always respond, but a few comments/questions/criticisms have turned into new posts. Halavei veiter.
Acharon acharon chaviv: K'siva v'Chasima Tova
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