Virginia

I liked Virginia.  I was starting to understand the atmosphere of the "South".  There was a mood to the whole place which was different to anything I had experienced before.  There was this feeling of run-down grandeur, of a place that whilst refined in its actions and behaviours, had definitely seen better times.

Everywhere we drove felt relatively "rural", even if it actually wasn't.  There was a feeling though that nothing was ever too far from the natural world.  We walked through wooded areas, nature reserves, parks and other bucolic areas besides the river.  All the while, we were still within the city of Richmond.

There was never a rush or any crowds either.  Instead, we were able to enjoy the quiet of our surroundings.  The people were polite and always greeted you with a smile, though it was hard to tell whether this was being out of mere courtesy or a genuine desire to be kind.

Later on, we decided to drive through Hollywood Cemetery.  This was an enormous sprawling area on the edge of Richmond that was the last resting place for many of the most famous figures of the Confederacy.  There were various monuments to the Confederate dead and some of the graves of the Confederate leaders were incredibly ornate.  The very last spot we visited was the grave of Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy.  We weren't alone when we got there.  Several other groups were standing there, looking on with a quiet reverence.  At different points, men approached solemnly and placed small stones on his grave, as though to make some sort of offering.  They stood in front of the grave, hands together and heads bowed in respect to this man and his cause.  I found it to be deeply disturbing.  The fallacy of the "Lost Cause" was still clearly pervasive in this country and seeing this bizarre procession of mourners seemed to reinforce the idea that many still didn't appreciate what had actually happened.  Maybe the fact that Reh and I aren't from America gives us a better view.  Sometimes, being removed from something provides an objectivity that is otherwise impossible to obtain.  Irrespective, we were both dumbfounded by what seemed to be a completely inability to be introspective in these matters.

It was hard to understand the true reason for the continued refusal to acknowledge the sins of the past.  However, being in the South made me understand the nostalgia that there may be.  The atmosphere of the place lends itself so strongly towards this idea that things were better before.  Maybe it is that simple, a powerful nostalgia for something never experienced which has blinded some to a less savoury reality of what happened.