Ostriches, Do Not Be Like Them Or Keep Your Head And Mind In The Sand Elita Sohmer Clayman

There is a saying that states that ostriches keep or bury their heads in the sand. Historians think this thought came from Pliny the Elder 23-79 AD.  He wrote in his Book 10, Chapter One that ostriches imagine when they have thrust their head and neck into a bush, that the whole of their body is concealed. The historians believe this is where the saying comes from and when we say someone buries their head in the sand like an ostrich; it means they hope that their worries or thoughts about something bad is gone. Do you know people like that? Is this a blessing to be like, or is it just ignorant feelings by a person?

I know some people like this and I think they believe that if they do not look at a television screen with bad news on it, somehow it did not happen. If they have a bad relationship with another person and they do not talk about it with that person, it will disappear. If they gamble their money away and cannot pay their bills, the bills will not arrive in the mail and then they need not send a remittance for the piece of paper stating they owe the money. There are others who do not want to hear about another person’s sadness, because then they do not have to have feelings of sorrow for that person, whether they know them or not.

I knew of a lady who lived to be ninety-five and when asked by someone to what she attributed her good health to; she said she never worries about anything or anyone. She goes about her daily events and that is it and no worries other than when she will be going out to dinner or who with, or will it happen, and where they will go. However, she said that is not a worry that is just contemplating her coming outing. I know someone when she and her husband watch TV while eating dinner, he never looks up to see if the meteorologist is predicting terrible weather, he looks down, consumes his dinner and is happy. I know of someone who has a continuous barking neighbor’s dog next door to him and when I asked him, doesn’t that get on your nerves; he replied “I do not hear the dog.” Well, then he should take a visit to the Otolaryngologist (ear doctor) and get his hearing checked or the wax taken from his ears out. He is closer to the barking dog than I am and I know it annoys him, because his wife and I discussed the animal and she said he goes to sleep early because he goes to work every morning at 5 AM and this dog disturbs his sleep, barking every night at 9PM for at least an hour.

So these people are what I have named Ostriches. Human Ostriches. They bury their thoughts and hearing in the sand and the experts say that ostriches do not bury their heads in sand; it just looks like that because they are watching over the eggs etc.

It is better to confront a problem with a person, with a barking dog, with a mean person in a medical office, with a hairdresser/stylist giving you a hard time about your desired haircut or hair do, to a dentist who is annoying you when you ask him some questions about your root canal or dental bridge or whatever you need to know. When I was a kid, people looked up to doctors and dentists as if they were God and were afraid to question any moves or procedures, they proposed to you. Now days, we have Google and the Internet and we can find out information long before we really need or want it.

We do not have to be Ostrich People; we can be informed people, wise people and smart ones too. It used to be when you went to buy a new automobile which is the second most expensive purchase you will ever contemplate; you took their word when they said they had to add five hundred dollars for a rust sealer additive. One day when buying a car many years ago, I said to the salesman, we do not want that, we cannot afford that and he said it is a must. So what were we to do, we got it.About a year later, we got notified that we would be receiving a five hundred dollar check because it had already been included in the total charge for the car under a different wording.Wow, what a fine feeling of being rich and being right in the first place. Now days, when buying a car, we have all the information ahead of time as to all the charges that are legitimate and even about a few that may be added on, if we are not informed enough. We no longer are ostriches.

When we first started to think about taking dance lessons in 1977, I called several studios to get their hourly prices for private and group lessons. I asked about the teacher qualifications, the parking for the studio location and the package we could buy, if we wanted a group of ten lessons because it was less expensive. I thoroughly checked it out and now days you can go online, type in a studio name, see pictures of the hall’s looks, costs and even information on the availability of parking spaces especially at night, if it is located in a widely traveled area. We are not ostriches there either.

Dancers are taught to stand up straight with good posture and are marked down in competitions if they do not do that. I try to stand straight, but with my Arthritic knees, it is sometimes difficult, more difficult than less. I do try and I do not want to look like an ostrich.

I go to a group of Ophthalmologists and I use the different ones there, because it is nice to know each one and they know you and in an emergency; you feel comfortable with using anyone of them. When I had my son way back in 1965, the norm was to go to the one and only doctor and that was it.When I had him 13 days earlier than thought it would be, he was gone on vacation and his associate delivered my child. I did not know him from as the expression says “Adam” and when he came into the room after the delivery, I felt like here was this ‘stranger’ with me during a very happy time and I had never met him. Now days, the young women see every doctor in the practice at least once during their nine months visits and it does not matter, who delivers the child, you have met him or her. This is a great way for mother and doctor to know each in advance of the big day.

So my layman or laywoman advice to you all, is never stick your head in the sand for anything in your life, not a newscast about terrible things, not a weather report about impending events, about a medical procedure, about something wonderful or  even bad, about dancing, golf, tennis or whatever new hobby you desire. You are invited to go on Google and you probably can find on there almost everything you need or want to know. You can even find out that ostriches are scary animals many times and you should not get too close to them. Also, when you see a plastic ostrich standing on someone’s lawn as a decorative piece, his head is down and maybe he is watching you, to see if you think he has his head in the sand (or grass). He just wants you to realize that you should not be like him or her; hold your head high, your shoulders straight if you can and be proud that you ask questions, so you have greater knowledge and insight to events in your life.

A doctor told me once that I ask too many questions, I told him I will no longer question him, because I am out of his office forever. I hear from the grapevine, that he is getting ready to retire at the early age of fifty-nine because his expenses in running the office were greater than the intake of money. It is not his age, he is still young, or his location which is excellent with easy parking and it is not his going on lots of vacations. It is because he was always impatient with the patients and they went elsewhere.

Be a smart consumer, no ostrich like habits and by looking up and straight, you will be standing tall well into a pretty high number in the age statistics. Ostriches are cute ornaments in a front or back lawn; not in your life or any other way.