Heels Over Head.
This afternoon as I was taking an extended lunch break in the addictive 65-degree springtime sun, I saw some teenagers carousing in the park in Georgetown. I don’t know if they were skipping school or on spring break or what, but they were just kinda hangin’ out. Passing a soccer ball around, eating ice cream, playing a guitar or a djembe drum… just having a good time. Perhaps even frolicking. Watching these kids made me so damn happy that my favorite time of year has come once again. Don’t worry though, I’ll save the rest of my SPRING ROCKS rant for next month when my favorite day of the year rolls around.
Back to the teens. At one point they started showing each other various gymnastic skills they each possess - somersaults, cartwheels, headstands, handstands, etc. And never before in my life has this thought crossed my mind, but for the first time, I wished that at some point in my life I’d learned how to do a handstand. It just looked like so much fun today! I suppose it’s never too late, but at this point, training myself to exist upside-down even if only for a very short period of time seems highly unlikely.
You see, I actually remember when I was a wee little Cub Scout, and there was some kind of gymnastics badge or something, and the only thing I could do was a somersault - or a "forward roll" as I believe it was called. I COULDN’T EVEN DO A BACKWARDS ROLL! I don’t remember whether I lied and said I had done the backwards roll, or if I just skipped that badge and moved on to the next one. I hope I didn’t lie. That wouldn’t have been very scoutly. Come to think of it, I’m pretty sure there was a cartwheel requirement for that badge too, so if I did lie, I must have lied about that too. Damn. If there’d been a lying badge, I’d have had that one all sewn up! (No, there wasn’t a sewing badge.)
Anyway, the sight of these teenagers in the park getting all gymnasty (?) with each other combined with the Tears For Fears greatest hits cd that’s been in rotation at the office for the past few weeks then led me to ponder the phrase "head over heels". What on earth does that mean? People talk about falling head over heels for someone, but if your head is over your heels, you haven’t really fallen at all, have you? You’re still erect, if you’ll pardon the pun. So when people say they’re head over heels, that would seem to mean nothing’s changed, right? Right.
Therefore I hereby submit a motion to coin the term "heels over head" to describe the reckless abandon with which a person falls for others. Both because it seems a far more accurate figure of speech, and because, at this rate, that’s the only kind of gymnastics badge I won’t have to lie to get.
March 27th, 2008 at 8:56 am
Cuuuuuute!
March 30th, 2008 at 9:50 am
i know i told you this already, but i figured perhaps one of your other readers (or BOTH, even) would appreciate the news as well:
The phrase originated in the 14th century as ‘heels over head’, meaning doing a cartwheel or somersault. This appeared later in Thomas Carlyle’s History of Frederick the Great, 1864:
“A total circumgyration, summerset, or tumble heels-over-head in the Political relations of Europe.”
The first mention of love comes in 1834, by which time the phrase had crossed the Atlantic, and into David Crockett’s Narrative of the life of David Crockett:
“I soon found myself head over heels in love with this girl.”
so thank you Mr. Crockett for unwittingly giving credence to the nonsensical thereby utterly turning a legitimate phrase on ITS heels and all but chucking us down the errant path of your “head over heels” legacy.