South will rise again...

As the world spins by outside the car windows everything has changed and yet stayed the same. A few weeks ago the colors of autumn were painted all over the forests heading west into the Blue Ridge. Now the air is cold and the trees are brown and naked. Winter sun streams through the windshield and hot coffee steams under the dash. We're on a road trip to the mountains to Charlottesville.

It is icy cold today, but the sun is bright and shining. We wandered the downtown avenues of shops and drank hot cocoa and coffee. We ran into old friends walking unexpectedly and explored old bookshops. I came away with a gorgeous old photoessay book about Indonesia. Only $8 - a find! And we took in the atmosphere of Charlottesville, home of Thomas Jefferson and Stonewall Jackson. Dead Presidents and Civil War Heros from the past. The American South has always been a little stuck in the past. As a Virginian I've always found the pride and nostalgia for the past both endearing and at the same time stifling.

I couldn't help snapping this shot of old Stonewall Jackson, in the downtown park until only recently the home of the Occupy Movement in Charlottesville. Symbolic of both the old and new South and my own ironic sentiments I think.