Leroy Jones, I don't think all music comes from New Orleans.

When you're alone and life is making you lonely, you can always go downtown. When you've got worries, all the noise and the hurry seems to help, I know, downtown.

Today, I wandered through the streets of downtown Fort Worth with an old friend.

We have an odd relationship, in a way, where we don't talk for months and months and somehow one of us will call the other coincidentally when they need to talk the very most.

It's quite convenient – and it happened the other day, when I was making friends with my Kleenex box, sitting pathetically on my bedroom floor at midnight trying to calm down about who knows what.

Just listen to the music of the traffic in the city, linger on the sidewalk where the neon signs are pretty. How can you lose? The lights are much brighter there, you can forget all your troubles, forget all your cares and go…

I suppose it's something I think is obvious to the people around me, but perhaps not – the fact that I do not ask for help.

Routinely, my bank account will dwindle to four dollars, and then I will simply not purchase anything and scrounge off the leftovers in my fridge until payday comes along, rather than call my mother for money.

This sort of behavior translates into other facets of my life, sometimes to my benefit, and for the most part to my detriment.

Downtown, things'll be great when you're downtown, no finer place for sure, downtown; everything's waiting for you.

But occasionally people come along that may not get it, but they do understand how to maneuver by it, and for those people I will be eternally grateful, and no matter how hard they try to disappear I will not let them go.

And I suppose that's how I ended up in downtown Fort Worth, climbing ladders into bell towers and discussing religion and the death penalty in the philosophy section of Barnes and Noble.

It was a lovely day; a breath of fresh air, full of conversation, motion. Full of life.

Don't hang around and let your problems surround you; there are movie shows downtown. Maybe you know some little places to go to where they never close downtown.

And it's one thing, to say 'what a coincidence, that you called me a few days ago when I was a puddle on the floor and I decided to answer the phone and silently accept your unknowing help, and funny how this tends to happen with us.'

It's another thing to realize that perhaps we call each other when we ourselves need help just as badly as the person receiving the call; a symbiotic relationship of unspoken suffocation.

But it's good, I think, to know that once a year I'll come back to Dallas, and somehow we'll drive to one place or another and wander the streets for a few hours, talking about everything that nobody seems to ask questions about anymore. Religion. Politics. Chaos. Humanity. Death. Life. The future.

Just listen to the rhythm of a gentle bossanova, you'll be dancing with 'em too before the night is over, happy again. The lights are much brighter there, you can forget all your troubles, forget all your cares and go…

It was a clear and sunny 75º day in North Texas, today on December 23rd, your mom's birthday, and you liked that I knew which way was North, and that I asked the name of the man with the pets and shook his hand.

But there was a tornado three hours away from here this afternoon, and tonight it's dark and thunderstorming.

Tomorrow it's supposed to hail, drop below freezing and then snow, with around an inch of accumulation by the end of the day.

Downtown where all the lights are bright, downtown, waiting for you tonight, downtown, you're gonna be alright now.

So what does it all mean, the constant call for help in our triple entendre 'life on the rocks'?

Life straight, on ice, pure and strong? Or scaling walls? Or falling to pieces?

Maybe nothing. Maybe just that no matter how things are going, we'll all need help and we should learn to ask for it.

And you may find somebody kind to help and understand you, someone who is just like you and needs a gentle hand to guide them along. So, maybe I'll see you there, we can forget all our troubles, forget all our cares and go…

So, here's to a new year.

Time to get it together, evaluate each situation, and make smart decisions about who to ask for help.

And then, to ask for it.

Downtown, things'll be great when you're downtown, don't wait a minute more, downtown; everything's waiting for you.

Hasta luego!
Alex