Build Your Own World

People rarely come out to the barn unless it is on the way to somewhere else which is (thankfully) the case with our good friends Griff, Sterling & their beautiful daughter Vespertine (who all actually appear in the opening funeral scene of Gravity, Griff playing the priest with some very memorable stop motion acting!) who often swing by during holidays on their way to see family! Together we all (finally!!) went to Roadside America/Miniature Village, a place I've been eager to go to ever since I moved to Pennsylvania! 

One man, as a child,  had an idea while standing atop a Pennsylvanian mountainside looking across the built world below him to build his own little world depicting the history of American life complete with a circus parade, a train system, dinosaur filled caverns, a movie theater, a coal mining operation, a jail, churches, farms, a zoo- everything! There is even a grand finale that depicts the sun set & rise to the tune of "God Bless America" while projections of Jesus (?) & American milestones flash across a mural of the Statue of Liberty! When I saw this amazing display I immediately thought of the line from Gravity where Brent reminds "The truth of this whole thing is you have to build your own world," a truth that our film is a testament to in every way possible. We all create the place and life we live and we should do so with the good of everyone and everything else in mind- just like Leonard, just like Brent and even just like Laurence Gieringer the creator of Miniature Village! Now...to the turkey!