so·ber (sō′bər) adj.
1. Not intoxicated or affected by the use of alcohol or drugs.
2. Abstaining from or habitually abstemious in the use of alcoholic drink or other intoxicants

This is is the last song I wrote before I got sober. It was in response to the alcohol related death of a very close friend. This was a friend that I had shot heroin with (among many other things). Looking back on it now, I can see how my personal thoughts on what sobriety is have been shaped and changed throughout the course of my experience with jails and institutions. He had been free of opiate dependence for many months before his death in a car crash. At that time I saw this fact as a moral victory of some sort. The reality of the matter is that he traded one addiction (heroin) for another more socially acceptable addiction (alcohol). This is common for a vast majority of people who struggle with chemical dependence, and especially those who try to overcome it on their own. The philosophy of being completely sober still escapes me at times, as I sit here typing this with coffee and cigarette in hand, and I will not split hairs over what exactly I think it is. I'd love to tell you that he would still be here if he had quit drinking too.... I believe he would be, but have no way of knowing that. What I do know is that by living my life differently I am doing my small, nearly insignificant, part in maintaining my belief that his death was not for nothing. I remember that night and my part in it, and it inspires me to do the next right thing daily. I believe he was on the right path, and it saddens me that we must keep walking without him. He was a good friend, son, and brother. He will be missed.