I don't go to meetings, but still share if interested the idea that one can live without a chemical compound that may or may not work for the individual ingesting it and that is up to the individual to decide. Not me. I have a good amount of time.. I went to a meeting yesterday to get a 24 hour chip and to maybe meetings would help me through some difficult times that I am going through. I haven't been in almost year. Before that for about 18 years as a serious player in the aa.game. Yet much like when I drank and was surrounded by my peers at the bar. I knew I didn't belong in the meeting. I even said fake name for Internet reasons my name is Lazy and I am a drinking enthusiast. Doesn't matter what I call it the behavior it is all the same. I got the 24 hour chip because the year ones seem so narcissistic and too gaudy. I never collected my 4 year chip as I said I don't go to meetings. I asked for a 24 one because I feel that is the true meaning of healing charlie Brown. It is a day of emotional blessings and turmoil all in the same day sometimes. Yet such is life. 
I keep getting up and drying my tears or joy and sadness and do it for me not for pats on the back of humble brags but because I just don't give any F's not to do it anymore. Even when I am down for the count and have no reasons to get up. I say hey I got another 24 hours to make it right.
Your thoughts on the humility of the 24 hour coin versus any year coin is very poignant. I was an active member of A. A. In an area where peoples identity dictated by amount of time they had. Their worth to others, self worth and importance to other and to the world was determined by the amount of time they had. The last meeting to meet for the month was coined an “anniversary meeting” where a party was eh down for the members who celebrated in that month. They were given a cake and a microphone to “say a few words” when accepting their coin, like it were an award. So much emphasis on time and how much one can accumulate and not enough emphasis on the ones still struggling and the new comer. This kind of mind set is the worst. When I relapsed after some time, and struggled to get sober again, I was shamed, berated, and felt completely alone. Once the youngest person in my group of friends with the most amount of time-I quickly was talked down to and treated as though my participation in the meetings were a joke. It’s was isolating.
You are 100% correct. In a program where we take life “one day at a time,” where “today is all we have,” why do we even celebrate yearly anniversaries? Reflecting on where one is versus where one used to be in the sense of how many 24 hours one has strung together, might be a better as a solitary activity. For, maybe, emphasis on time only makes the newbies or the still struggling feel belittled, less than and crappy about themselves.
I attend 12 step meetings frequently because out in the “big bad world,” I am alone, insignificant, and belong nowhere. Meetings give me a sense of belonging and a true feeling of not being alone. There is a camaraderie that I feel in almost every meeting I go to. As a spectator of many sports, I often describe the feeling I get in a meeting the same when I describe the feeling of being jammed packed in a college football stadium, with 1000s of people all rooting for the same team. I feel Connected to my fellow team supporters because despite having different beliefs or opinions on everything else, we can rally around the single thing we have in common, the love for the Ohio state buckeys and the hatred for that team up north.
Similarly, I find connection with the people I attend meetings with because of the solidarity in fighting the same battle, the same monster-addiction. That despite any other belief or opinion or ideals we can rally around our common enemy, addiction. That would fight against addiction is so Big and important that we can put everything else aside. It’s those feelings that I crave and ultimately get out of attending 12 step meetings.
For me I feel in limbo and in-between in a lot of areas of my life especially since Feb 24,2018 at 3 pm mst when he walked into my life.. my whole world changed and since then I have been going down this path of stripping the identity away and all the social norms of what makes others comfortable, but I always thought that shiiiittt does not work for me. Yet I have people around me. I guess that is something. Yet I felt more alone.. I am not a country .music fan if people are you do you. I think of the Willie Nelson song these are your friends is this really where you want to be. Ever since the date stated I have been looking for my tribe. Much like another song ... I still haven't found what I am looking for.....