The McKee Photography Studio Christmas Card - 2022
Welcome to the end of 2022 and our 23rd annual Studio Holiday Card shoot! This year it’s an existential holiday card!
Wow. Another year in the books and we are getting back to, well, a new version of normal.
My boys, once again, humored their “Ole Man” and threw around ideas for this year’s book cover.
We came up with getting back to danger and adventure, and tossed in a little quantum philosophy, to show their own growing sophistication.
Of course, we had to keep to the Hardy Boys Adventures theme, too!
I hope you enjoy it and I look forward to working with you all in 2023.
Happy Holidays to you all, however you choose to celebrate the season.
We, at McKee Photography, want to wish you a warm, safe, happy, and above all, healthy holiday season.
See you in 2023!
Midnight Everwhere Excerpt:
From the inside of the card:
“I think I get the ‘why’ of it. But, I am not really clear on the ‘how’,” RB started. “I mean, it is not ‘around midnight.’ It’s ‘midnight, everwhere, all at once.’ How is that even possible?”
“Simple enough,” said Gears. “You have to look at it from outside. Remember reading about the whole quantum block universe theory?”
RB wrinkled his brow and flicked the gold Zippo open. “Yeah, I know. Imagine all of time, every little moment, inside a shoe box. Eternity, with a smelly old shoe, existing, like a pile of sand.”
Gears smiled. “I don’t think that footwear is a part of the theory, but, you are on the right track.”
“And, he exists outside of the box. And, he can reach in and touch any point he wants to by coordinating at least four different dimensions, to put the presents where, and when, they need to be.”
“Um. Yes. At least four. Possibly more. That’s the working theory,” Gears said, watching another present streak past the tower.
RB clicked and flicked the lighter a couple more times. “Because he has Eiger Time, his own personal, internal clock, not affected by our little universe, he has all the time in the world to make his deliveries. And, they appear, to us, showing up exactly at midnight.”
“Right.”
RB sighed again.
“So, in your theory, he could just go out on one trip, deliver all of the presents ever, just by changing his coordinates as he goes. That is one heck of a night!”
“Well, keep in mind that he could just be an anthropomorphic manifestation when he appears in our block of time. Who knows what he really looks like. Or, if he only has two hands. Or, hands at all.”
“Oh, come on. Now, you are just making stuff up!”
“There are more things out there, RB, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”
“Shakespeare? Now? You could have just said that you don’t know.”
“What I do know, RB, is that this stuff always gives me a quantum headache!”
2022 Existential Holiday Card Notes
While prepping for this year’s photo shoot, I listened to Adam Conover’s Factually! podcast, specifically Existential Physics with Sabine Hossenfelder.
And, Arthur C. Clark’s quote, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic” came to mind.
So, I told the boys that they were going to have an existential conversation, on a clock tower face (see Harold Lloyd’s Safety Last classic from 1923), while presents magically appeared and sleeted by.
They said, “Yep. Sounds about right. When are we shooting it?”
Disclaimer: I have no idea if this is really how the Man in Red works. Nor, do I truly understand the theory of the Block Universe.
So. Any errors in the text are purely my own. But, I think I am close to right and, since it is philosophy, heck, close enough is good for starting an argument over a couple of drinks, right?
Happy Holidays, Everyone!
Stay Safe and Healthy out there.
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