Searching of Ostriches on De Nial River

In case you are ever brought face to face with the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal, throw your towel over your head.

And where's your towel?

You do know where you towel is, right?

The Bugblatter Beast believes if you can't see it, then it can't see you.

A bit of literary reference to open the doors of your mind for what some people are calling "Your Daily Dose of Ben Baker."

(Aside, if you people continue this then I will probably begin suffering from delusions of self worth. Send me some hate mail to keep me grounded, wudja?)

It's your fault. Not mine.

Another? Pam Tillis recorded a song years ago about an unfaithful beau in which she sang "Call me Cleopatra everybody, cause I'm the Queen of Denial." (and if that song is now stuck in your head, I grin madly in your direction.)

One more. Unless you are entirely delusional, you know ostriches do not stick their hand in the sand when confronted with danger.

To do so is an invitation to be removed from the gene pool.

But, folks still refer occasionally to people being like the avian Darwin Award candidate. They ignore things which could be important to them, inconvenient or which directly contradicts tightly held beliefs.

Are you a candidate? Applications accepted 24/7/365.

Which, depending on the matter being ignored, can be a very real invitation for the person to be next year's Darwin Award winner, provided the person has not reproduced yet. Yeah. Can't have surviving offspring to be a Darwin Award winner.

I heard a radio story about health care. An artist was interviewed. A year earlier a spot was found on his lung. He'd not been back to get it examined.

Good case of potentially fatal denial right there.

I have yet to meet anyone who isn't like the non-existent ostrich at least sometimes. Gimme enough time and I bet I can find something you're not willing to accept, despite evidence.

The modern ostrich.

If you are one of those folks, and you are, you are not alone. I'm one too. Yep.

There are things I ignore, refuse to admit exist and so forth. Example?

Global warming.

IOW - My thoughts on ... never mind.

Pick a side. I don't wanna know, don't want to find out and will go to great lengths to avoid being edified on the subject from any direction.

Another? I'm thinking. 20 minutes later (thank you for waiting patiently) and I still can't think of one. Maybe someone who thinks they know me pretty well can come up with one or more.

Some atheists will say my belief in God is delusional and an example of Ostrich syndrome. But they have no proof God doesn't exist so that argument is nothing more than Oboros on a universal scale.

Another way of looking at ostrich syndrome is to call it: Rejection of reality.

Why do people act that way? Now there's a Radio Lab episode I'd love to hear. Why humans deny reality.

Why do we deny it?

What do we gain be denying reality?

Are you invulnerable? Or a Darwin Award candidate?

What we lose by denying reality is more quantifiable. If you don't believe in the existence of semi trucks, then sooner or later one is going to flatten you. OK that's an extreme example, but it makes my point.

Sometimes these denials are rooted in phobias. I came across a lady once who was so terrified of dogs she would not even get within 100 yards of a puppy if she could help it.

But not all denials are phobia-based. Or are they?

That would be me.

Seems to me that when we deny something exists, that's a sort of self-defense mechanism. We defend ourselves against things which we believe have the power to harm us.

If you believe something can harm you, unless you are totally psychotic, you do have a modicum of fear where that something is concerned. Otherwise, you wouldn't believe it could harm you.

So, by denying the something exists, we also refuse to believe we can be affected by it.

Sound like anyone you know?

Just because you can conquer that fear doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

Fear-based? Damfino, but it sounds plausible based strictly on my convoluted reasoning.

But there are also things we reject out of hand because we don't fear them. We just don't like the idea.

Gotta get me one of these.

Why? What do we gain by doing that?

What we lose is a new experience and a broadening of our horizons. Again, the loss is quantifiable, more or less.

But it is the gain that confuses me. Where is it? What is it. Why is it? When is it? Ok let's continue the thread here, how is it?

I dunno. This is one of those questions that keeps me up at night.

Why do people reject reality? It's not logical, so is there even a reason? An excuse maybe? Cultural norms and conditioning?

Dunno. If you figure it out, please let me know. I'd really like to sleep tonight.

Give a brother a hand and help him sleep tonight.