Writing to learn

One of the neat things about writing a blog is that it gives me an opportunity to organize my thoughts. As I am writing, sometimes things come out that surprise me. Then I have to think--do I really feel that way? What are the implications of that? How does it fit with other things I believe? Then I might rethink my opinion based on the implications I have considered. So writing is a way of thinking and learning, even when I am doing the writing and then just reading what I have written. We can learn from other people, but when we write and make our thoughts external, we can learn from ourselves.