Tuesday, March 13, 2012

I Want to Believe

 
Not only is the universe stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine.
Sir Arthur Eddington
English astronomer (1882 - 1944)
 
Sometimes you think you have everything figured out. Sometimes you're wrong. I got a phone call out of the blue a few days ago. It was my mother and it went something like this:
 
Mom: "I was wondering if you ever watched that TV show 'The X-Files'".
 
Me, hestitantly: "Ummm, sure. Like a hundred years ago. It's been off the air awhile..."
 
Mom: " Well I thought you did and that's what I told your Aunt Gloria when she dropped off these X-Files things. She just wanted someone to have them who would appreciate them."
 
Me, confused: "Ummm, okay? Aunt Gloria?"
 
Mom: "Oh yes, she was a huge fan of 'The X-Files'. It was her favourite show, you know. She collected these X-Files things."
 
Me, still confused: "I had no idea... so she collected things?"
 
Mom, almost chirpy now: "Oh she did! She's just cleaning out her closets and she had these things and so I said you probably watched that show, so you'd appreciate them. I have them here for you. There's a shirt and some books and some dolls..."
 
Me, totally weirded out: "You mean figurines? The TV characters?"
 
Mom, still chirpy: "Oh sure, but they're dolls. I call them dolls."
 
Me, thinking about eBay: "Okay, well, I'll pick them next time I'm over..."
 
So my Aunt, in her late 60's, is an X-Files fan. She lives in the same town as I do and in all the years I've known her (like, all my life) we have never spoken of the X-Files. I have never heard her mention X-Files. Or aliens. Or ghosts. Or creatures in the sewers. I had no inkling that she was into sci-fi genre entertainment, let alone 'The X-Files'. I have never known her to watch much television, to be honest.
 
Truth be told, I did a little googling on the subject of X-Files figurines and had visions that maybe my Aunt's 'dolls' were the limited-edition 12" figurines that demand a few hundred dollars apiece by collector's (not that I would have sold them). But, of course, they aren't. Hers - now mine - are the more pedestrian 6" figurines that might go for $15 out on eBay.
 
Still, I'm mystified and impressed. The truth is out there, and often surprising.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

The "X-Files" was the question to a Jeopardy answer earlier this week. Not sure if this event is related to yours. Could be, you never know.

Crazylegs said...

Weeeiiiiirrrrdddd.

Pagan Mnemosyne said...

You have the coolest aunts.

Adam Kantor said...

I have those figures. My kids play with them. Mainly because they are the normal looking people that interact with their superheroes.