What is Missing?

By John Nieman

A treat for the eyes and the gray matter too, What is Missing? very successfully employs its unique visual device and its warm conversational tone to set up an insightful and eminently worthwhile discussion on modern life."

• Language: English
• Publisher: URLink Print & Media, LLC
• Release date: Apr 9, 2019
• ISBN: 9781643673387

John Nieman

John Nieman, an accomplished artist and writer, has exhibited his paintings throughout the United States and in Europe. His first book of art and poetry, Art of Lists was published in 2007. He has published two novels, The Wrong Number One and Blue Morpho. In addition, he recently published a childen's book called The Amazing Rabbitini. Mr. Nieman lives in Dobbs Ferry, New York, and is the father of five children.

Book preview

What is Missing

Copyright © 2019 by John Nieman. All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any way by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the author except as provided by USA copyright law.

This novel is a work of fiction. Names, descriptions, entities, and incidents included in the story are products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, events, and entities is entirely coincidental.

The opinions expressed by the author are not necessarily those of URLink Print and Media.

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Book design copyright © 2019 by URLink Print and Media. All rights reserved.

Published in the United States of America

ISBN 978-1-64367-337-0 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-64367-338-7 (Digital)

Fiction

03.04.19

Contents

Historical Backdrop

Preface

Missing Spontaneity

Missing Innocence

Missing Reading Books

Missing Compromise

Missing Simple Pleasures

Missing Privacy

Missing Discipline

Missing Balance

Missing Charm

Missing Wit

Missing Role Models

Missing Facts

Missing Trust

Missing Christmas

Missing Acceptance of Aging

Missing Time

Missing Patience

Missing Fatherhood

Missing Upward Mobility

Missing Direction

Missing Poetry

Missing Manners

Missing Resilience

Missing Silence

Missing Home-made

Missing Truth

Missing Live Talk

Missing Modesty

Missing Peace

Missing Any History

Missing Loyalty

Missing Faith

Missing Eco-sense

Missing Penmanship

Missing Subtlety

Missing Safety

Missing The Big Picture

Missing Tolerance

Missing Thank you’s

Missing Monogamy

Missing Self-reliance

Missing Moderation

Missing Optimism

Missing Sleep

Missing Equality

Missing Chivalry

Missing Phys Ed

Missing Depth

Missing Common sense

Missing Stress Relief

Missing Customer Service

Missing Compassion

Acknowledgements

Historical Backdrop

I remember those milk cartons.

In the early morning, just after pouring cheerios into the breakfast bowl, you would grab the half-gallon of homogenized, Vitamin D milk, and find yourself staring at the face of a missing loved one.

The first kid I recall seeing was Etan Patz, who vanished on May 29, 1972. Evidently, he left his Soho apartment in lower Manhattan for the first time by himself to walk two blocks to his school bus stop. He never made it to the bus stop.

A hundred police officers and a team of bloodhounds searched for him.

His father, a professional photographer, put pictures of the missing boy on local posters and even had his image projected on screens in Times Square.

On October 9, his face began to appear on milk cartons, along with 55 other missing children. Within the next six years, 700 of the nation’s 1800 independent dairies adopted the practice of asking citizens to help find the missing children. It seemed like the faces were everywhere…and for good reason. Hundreds of thousands of kids disappeared every year, and this effort was credited with raising awareness of the problem.

Unfortunately, it didn’t lead to results. Despite hundreds of images, only one kid was ever found alive. Etan Patz was not that kid. He was declared dead in 2001…despite several closely followed suspects, excavations, and false confessions.

In the late l980’s, the practices of advertising the missing kids vanished from milk cartons. Perhaps it was the transition to plastic cartons that could no longer accommodate the images. There was also resistance from a few parents, Dr. Benjamin Spock and Dr. T. Barry Brazelton who argued that the images frightened children unnecessarily. Most likely, it was the march of technology. Things like emails, highway Amber alerts, and 24/7 cable broadcasts now seem to be a more effective way to spread the word of missing kids.

However, the memory of these milk cartons lingers for most people, even to this day. For the vast majority of Americans, it was a daily reminder of the valuable, the vulnerable, and the vanished.

Hopefully, with this re-interpretation, it can still represent those values.

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Preface

I have always loved living in the United States of America. No place on earth is as flexible,