Keep Your Head Down and Your @$$ Up
Why This Is Bad Advice and What You Need to Do Instead
Recently, I was having a conversation with a beloved family member that had found himself in a difficult life situation. I was more than happy to be a sounding board for him. He shared the challenging situation with me. We batted around a few ideas on how to handle it. But, in a moment of helplessness, he said something that caught my attention in a way that forced me to pause and do a mental double-take. In a slightly melancholic way, he said:
“Well, I guess I just need to keep my head down and my ass up.”
“What an interesting adage,” I thought to myself. I had never heard this expression before. My assumption, based on the content of our discussion and the “head down” part of the quote, was that this expression was meant to suggest that his best option was to not make any sudden moves in effort to avoid becoming a target himself. But, what about the “ass up” part of the quote? What does that mean? After giving it a couple moments of thought, I said to him:
“I don’t know exactly what that expression means, but it sounds like a good way to get f*cked.”
To this day, I still don’t understand the point of the “ass up” portion of that quote. However, I still stand by my response to it.
