So, it seems, ostriches do not bury their heads in the sand after all.

That is a real shame, because it makes for the best of metaphors.

When people won’t accept reality, we say they are burying their heads in the sand. 

When people refuse to consider opposing points of view, we say they are burying their heads in the sand. 

When people won’t deal with an obstacle or an issue, we say they are burying their heads in the sand. 

The myth is that when an ostrich is threatened by a predator rather than a natural fight or flight instinct the world’s largest bird simply buries its head in the desert sands to avoid detection. 

You know, like when you were a child and you were convinced that if you shut your own eyes that your parents, siblings or playmates could not see you — you were suddenly, magically, invisible. 

It wasn’t true when you were young. 

It isn’t true of the ostrich. 

It isn’t true in life. 

If you think about it, if an ostrich buried its head in the sand it would suffocate and die. 

Ostriches have little bitty heads.

They have great big bodies. 

From a distance, if they are digging for food, or burying their eggs, it may appear their tiny little heads are buried, but they are not. 

It is a myth. 

For the most part, when an ostrich is threatened it does one of the things ostriches do best.

It runs. 

The big, awkward-looking bird cannot fly.

It can, however, run at clips up to 40 mile per hour. 

There are times the original Big Bird will attempt to “play dead,” or perhaps more accurately play like it is a bush, by crouching down, lowering its tiny head and remaining motionless until the threat has passed.

Maybe from a distance it looked to onlookers as if its head was buried. 

It was not. 

As it turns out, though they cannot speak, they are really not all that dumb either. 

Burying one’s head, ignoring the facts, avoiding the truth, refusing to accept reality does not work for ostriches, and it will not work for us. 

Pretending like a problem does not exist, does not make it go away. 

Generally, it just makes it worse. 

Republicans can’t just ignore Trump and expect him to go away. 

Democrats can’t just ignore Sanders and expect him to go away. 

Elected officials can’t just ignore the watchdog media and expect it to go away. 

It just doesn’t work that way — ask an ostrich.