WHAT IF ONE MILLION PEOPLE GAVE ME A DOLLAR?

I am one of the 12.5 million or so unemployed persons living in the United States.  I will quickly add that my unemployment situation has little-to-nothing to do with the recession.  I am unemployed because I chose to move to a new town with my partner of nearly 3 years; he is finishing his last two years of school at UC Santa Cruz, and I’m along for the ride.  

I am also a musician - a category of human being who frequently finds it difficult to both remain employed and continue doing the thing that he/she prefers to do - perform and record music.

It may be true that the current economic situation is making my job search more difficult - but probably the thing that keeps me from maintaining a job for any reasonable duration of time is this sickness I suffer from - being in a band.

The other, actual sickness I suffer from, is clinically called agoraphobia - which is to say that I have a fear of travelling.  In my case, this is specifically a fear of travelling on airplanes.  You can, perhaps, imagine that the combination of these two ailments (disease #1 - being a musician, disease #2 - fear of flying) is a bit, well, debilitating, professionally speaking.

And you’d be right!  My fear of flying has, at least, truncated my career as a touring musician on two separate occasions, forcing me to say ‘thanks but no thanks’ to some great touring opportunities.

So I’m left with a difficult choice; either give up the ghost and get a ‘real’ job, or continue to make music - on my own terms.

Lately I’m inclined to chose the latter of these. My new band, Churches is without a doubt the most promising project I’ve started on my own - and the record we are working on is the closest I’ve ever come to realizing my teen dreams of creating fuzzed-out, blissfully poppy and weird rock music.

All of this may be well and good, you might say, but why, exactly, do you need a million dollars?

The truth is - I don’t need a million dollars.  But it sure would be nice.

Here’s how I would spend my $1,000,000:

$4500 - My share of the rest of this years’ rent.

$11,205 - Tuition and fees to finish my BA in Social Sciences.

$15,000 (approx) - The outstanding balance on my car.

$100,000 (approx) - A 4 to 6 bedroom house in a decent part of Springfield, MA, or      similarly priced Northeastern location

$10,000 - To finish recording the first Churches album.

$15,000 - Used VW Eurovan (for touring with the band, roadtripping, and camping).

$800 - Fender Deluxe Amp (Hopefully they’ll throw in a road case).

$5000 - Estimated cost of a year of weekly therapy sessions to assist me in mastering my fear of flying.

$3,000 - A really nice vacation with my boyfriend - after flying fear is tackled.

$100,000 - For my Mom.

$100,000 - To be split among other family members (this will be tricky).

$50,000 - Donation to NPR.

$50,000 - Donation to PBS.

$10,000 - Donation to Barack Obama’s re-election campaign.

$10,000 - Donation to Human Rights Campaign (John and I would like the option of  being legally married in California someday).

$10,000 - Donation to the World Land Trust-US.

$10,000 - Donation to the Nature Conservancy. 

$10,000 - Donation to the Ocean Conservancy.

$10,000 - Donation to the American Civil Liberties Union.

$10,000 - Donation to Doctors Without Borders.

$5,000   - Donation to the Community Agroecology Network.

$5,000   - Donation to Creative Capital.

$5,000   - Donation to Little Kids Rock.

$5,000   - Donation to 826 National.

$20,000 - Startup cash for this idea I have for a site (I can’t give away the name - its too good) that helps consumers in the 21st century choose the products they buy from the least evil corporation.  It will be very helpful.

$100,000 - Investments, which will be in American green-energy technologies.

After all of that I’ll still have $330,495 left.  I’ll probably just save that for a rainy day, but I’m open to ideas.

This little excersize in thinking about what I would actually do with a million dollars was really awesome.  A few things occurred to me while I was making my list, chiefly that a million dollars is a lot of money, and secondly, that there are a lot of non-profits in the world doing awesome things.  

I would be interested to hear what you would do with a million dollars - how much would you keep?  How much would you give away?  Who would you give it to?

When I was a kid, I remember thinking to myself that if everyone in America would just mail me a penny I’d be pretty rich.  

Now I am an adult (kind of) and I still think that this is a good idea.  

That’s why I made this tumblr page: to see what would happen if I ask everyone I know to ask everyone they know to give me a dollar.

My sincere hope is that a lot of people will give me a dollar.

If you’d like to participate, just click the above paypal link to donate $1.00 USD - no more, no less. Most credit or debit cards accepted.

Questions can be directed to:

amilliondollartumblr@gmail.com

Thanking you in advance for your contribution of $1.oo, 

Caleb