December 13, 2002

An Oasis in a Roughneck Turf; a Séance With Freud; Dilemmas of Desire

Soybeans. The smell hangs thick over Decatur, like a lollipop left to melt on a heat register -- sweet and sticky and almost nauseating. Locals are used to this: the scent of money, Archer Daniels Midland, jobs. Midwestern and rural as corn, soybeans are fillers in ice cream and gasoline. Soybeans balance menopausal women and lubricate machinery. They grease our lives, and in return Decaturites work to get those products moving.

Decatur aspires to little, not even alteration.

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