Money, Happiness, and the X-Files 2 Set Visit Auction

Does money buy happiness? I (like most poor people) would tend to argue in the affirmative. Here's an example: over at GAWS, it has been announced that they are going to auction off two passes to spend a day on the set of the X-Files 2, watching shooting take place and meeting the cast and crew.

It is times like this that I really, really wish I wasn't in poverty. I mean sure, I want a nice house and a cool car. I'd like to be able to know for sure that I am going to have enough money for food and rent at the end of the month. I'd like to have my student loans and credit card debt paid off. Those creature comforts would all be wonderful, but what I would really like is the ability to drop a few thousands dollars, or whatever it is going to cost, to win this auction and get onto the set of the X-Files 2.

I couldn't even imagine what that experience would be like... to finally get to meet people like Chris Carter and Gillian Anderson, people who have brought such joy and pleasure to my life. These people affected my personal development on a deep level. They played a huge part in my becoming the person I am today and an even bigger part in the person I was throughout high school. They have had a monumental influence on my life, and I have had no influence what-so-ever on theirs. The opportunity to say, "Thanks," would be amazing.

And that, my friends, is how money can buy happiness. Money affords you the ability to walk onto the set of the new X-Files movie, shake hands with Chris Carter, look him in the eyes and say, "Thank you. Your art made my life better." These are the moments that poverty steals away from you. It's not just that you can't have nice things, it's that you can't do the things you want to do, the things that would bring you real joy and create memories that would last you a life time.

I had the opportunity to meet Chris Owens, the actor who played Jeffery Spender, at a comic book convention in Toronto a few years ago. And William B David, the cigarrette smoking man himself, was kind enough to send me an email a few months back. In that sense, I'm lucky. I have interacted with some of the people who brought The X-Files to life.

In fact, I'm very lucky. When I say "poverty" I mean only that I have to worry about how I'm going to pay my rent sometimes, and that it will be a few decades before my wife and I pay off our student loans. I don't mean that I am on the streets, starving and alone, like hundreds of thousands of Canadians out there. I've rarely gone hungry in my life and I have a shelf that holds nine seasons worth of X-Files DVDs, most of which sold for more than $100 each back in the day.

But that only serves to prove my point. One of the reasons I was able to experience the bliss of watching The X-Files was the fact that I had the money to afford cable television, a DVD player and the box sets of the seasons. The X-Files brought me bountiful joy, but only because I had the money to purchase access to that joy.

My wife and I currently pay $700 a month in student loans. Lets say the set passes end up selling for $5000, and lets say that I won. That would mean it would take me an extra seven months to pay off our student loan debt. Throw on the interest and it would probably be more like eight or nine months. Plus, we'd have to add the cost of plane tickets to Vancouver, lodging once we are there, and transportation to the set. That's probably a couple more months worth of money there.

So, in the end of the day, I have to ask myself, is one day on the set of The X-Files 2 worth one year of my life? Sadly, the answer is, "probably not."

I really hope that whoever wins the auction appreciates how truly lucky they are.