Artifact/Space Presentation

Intro-
Upon first hearing about Alcoholics Anonymous I had already painted a picture in my mind of how it went. Whether the media, my fellow peers, or movies helped me paint this picture, it was wrong. I pictured a bunch of low lives walking in with their bottles of booze, tattoos and piercings , with five children trailing behind. For some reason I had always thought of Alcoholics Anonymous to be some kind of joke, where everyone sits in a circle and says, “I’m Taylor, and I’m an alcoholic” This vision I had would soon vanish after attending an official Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. As I walked into the double doors at Fairbanks rehabilitation center in Indianapolis I immediately obtained an extreme sense of comfortableness. There is an old wooden table when you first walk in the double doors. This has pamphlets resting on it informing about anything from Alcoholics to Overeaters. There are baskets on that table as well for the money collection. And lastly a big book, that resembles something of a bible on the table. There are your typical gray, metal plastic chairs all lined up in rows leading to the small, proscenium style stage. On this stage there is a beat up podium where speakers reside. On the walls behind the stage are two large, wooden plaques one on each side of the stage that read, “the twelve steps of Alcoholics Anonymous and the twelve steps of Narcotics Anonymous” The walls offer nothing of aesthetically pleasing value, just plain old boring white. Before the meeting is called in session, there are people standing around talking about anything from the baseball game they went to earlier to something funny their kid had done. Interestingly enough, these people didn’t bring their seven kids to the meeting and they weren’t wearing obnoxious clothing. They were normal everyday people just like us. A leader walks to the podium and begins the meeting with the serenity prayer and talks about what step we are going to cover today from the big book, which is a book full of insightful information regarding the twelve steps. He then calls a boy to the podium to share his life story. With this being said, today I’m going to tell you about what I feel is my focal point and how an artifact plays an important role in not only my focal point, but my space in Alcoholics Anonymous.

Body-
A. Focal Point:
a. The stories of AA members
i. The focal point I have chosen for my subculture is the people’s stories that belong to AA. I feel as if this is the center of activity at an AA meeting. For me, hearing the desperate, but hopeful stories of Alcoholics makes me think of them in a whole new light. Whether that story contains a mother that won’t talk to her daughter anymore, a young kid that killed a family drinking and driving, or an old man that has liver failure due to his addiction – they all give me chills. I have trouble relating to these stories, but I know an inside view is totally different. I think that an insider can relate to all aspects of another beings story. They must feel like they are not alone when they hear these stories. These stories absolutely must help them want to recover also.
B. Artifact:
a. The coins of AA
i. The artifact I have chosen is the coins of AA. Generally speaking they are a memento that you receive on your first day of attending, and your sobriety anniversaries. There are also coins that serve for other functions as well in AA. My artifact fits into my space because it’s something that is acknowledged at every meeting. At each meeting, a leader asks the audience how many days they have been sober. He may say, “Who’s been sober for twenty four hours, a month, a year, ten years, or so on?” Depending on who wants a coin they raise their hand and normally their sponsor presents them with the coin. A sponsor is someone that they hand choose to help guide them through the recovery process. If they are tempted to drink, they can call up their sponsor at any time and they will help them through it because they too have experienced the struggle. The most common coin in AA has the serenity prayer on one side and ‘to thine own self be true’ on the other, with a triangle that states how long they have been sober. This main coin is available in 24 hour, months 1, 2, 3, 6, 9, 18, and years 1-60. These small, but powerful sayings have a huge meaning. The serenity prayer is a constant reminder to the alcoholic that it is time to change. The be true quote means to be true to yourself. To let someone or something else define you can make you lose your ability to discover and grow. It is a constant reminder that in order to find yourself and change you must remember the twelve steps.
ii. This artifact gives the people in AA a sense of accomplishment. It not only serves the function of a gift, but it can also be thought of as a type of currency because it is a coin. With this being said, the coins of AA are very valuable to the people that receive them.

b. The history
i. Early evidence implies that many early members of AA carried around personal mementos to remind themselves how important their sobriety was. Sister Ignatia, a nun who helped the founders start the first official AA meeting at St Thomas in Akron, would give the drunks leaving the hospital a sacred heart medallion and instructed them that if they were going to drink they had the responsibility of bringing the heart medallion back to her before. After this, the tradition was born and incorporated throughout AA history. The coin serves a literal purpose- that being a gift and a symbol- that being sobriety.



Conclusion- My focal point and artifact work hand and hand. Because most people’s stories are about how they became an alcoholic and how they became sober, a reoccurring theme in the AA meetings is sobriety. The coins give an alcoholic that extra encouragement to keep going, as well as hearing the stories of other alcoholics. So now that I have given you a little more information about Alcoholics Anonymous, I hope I have changed the picture in your mind.