I am crossing America by Amtrak train and am now leaving the Wild West headed east through the Midwest. Much of the Midwest is prairie, farms and cows. Collectively these states are called the Plains States, probably because they are indeed very plain. Not a thing is growing at this time of year, but the planting season is just around the corner. If the spring planting is good, the corn will be "knee high by the 4th of July" and these states will produce enough soybeans to make tofu for all of Japan.

The Midwest is known for its writers. From Garrison Keillor's radio variety show "A Prairie Home Companion" and its news from Lake Wobegon in Minnesota, to Laura Ingalls Wilder's homesteads in Kansas and Wisconsin, to Mark Twain's adventures down the Mississippi River from St. Louis, to James Thurber's antics and Sherwood Anderson's tales about small town life in Ohio, the Midwest has always inspired its people to write. And it's no wonder -- there's not much else to do.

It's easy to get nostalgic about this slow, laid-back life outside the train window though. Anderson talked about clover fields and yellow mustard weed in his book about Winesburg, Ohio. He could have been on a train looking out the window when he said: "I go about looking at horses and cattle. They eat grass, make love, work when they have to, bear their young. I am sick with envy of them." That was in 1919, but the envious life of horses and cattle still exists here today. That's because nothing changes very quickly in the Midwest. And this is the charm -- it's like going back in time. As in Lake Wobegon, where "all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking and all the children are above average," what needs to change?