The Missing Piece – Our Search for Security in an Insecure World is a book that could have relevance for almost any man or woman in today’s society. Essentially, the book examines how each and every one of us, in our own way, seeks to find a ‘sense of security’ in what has become a very hectic, fast-paced, insecure world.

The Missing Piece is a single book uniquely divided into three parts. The first part is a short story about how a grandfather and his grandson spend a very special day together even though they are forced to change their original plans due to inclement weather. The grandfather, however, demonstrates a certain resilience, wonderful creativity and wisdom that not only speak to his grandson, but to the reader as well.

In the second part of the book, each chapter begins by acknowledging certain qualities or characteristics that the grandfather exhibited in the short story. The author then expands on these traits sharing his own personal insights, experiences, quotes from noteworthy individuals, and other general commentary. Written in an engaging, conversational style, Boughton’s commentary is both stimulating and thought provoking and makes for easy, quick reading.

The third part of the book is subtitled, “The Other Missing Peace” (note the change in spelling). Here, the author shares some very personal insights and experiences from
which he has learned some major lessons of life, lessons that have, in fact, changed his life. While he acknowledges in this section that there are no real guarantees of finding security in our world, the themes of the three final chapters suggest that one can potentially find something very special that is far more valuable, something the author calls, "the other missing peace.”

The author clearly acknowledges in the preface of the book that he is not a professional counselor, clinical psychologist, psychiatrist or member of the clergy; nor does he portend to have all the answers to many of the questions he asks. Instead he comes across as someone that is real, someone the readers can relate to. The author makes admissions to his own shortcomings and what he has learned from dealing with his own insecurities. The book has purposely been written with more of a conversational tone to it in order to address certain sensitive issues in more of a non-threatening manner.

Maybe best of all, however, is the strong message in this book about hope. The author has a strong personal belief that as good or bad as life might be at any given moment in time, we must live our lives with the attitude and the belief that tomorrow can always be better than today. This belief is brought to life in the short story, in the final chapter of the book and in the epilogue.

The Missing Piece was published by Lucky Press LLC (www.luckypress.com) in Lancaster, Ohio and became available for distribution October 10, 2002.