The Influential Obscure

"I must warn you; there will be a disparity between what you thought you knew and what you experience."

~Baron Friedrich von Berger
When the Baron describes the differences between expectation and reality in Chapter VII: When and Where to Travel of  the book Time Warping for Beginners he is describing how what we know about History compared what actually happened are different.  He continues by saying,

"You may not notice this at the outset as you will likely be enamored by the large events and personalities that drew you there; though as you look down where the masses live you will begin to experience another story.  Stories you may have had access to even in your own Time—old letters from fathers to their sons or sons to their mothers when they are off to war, correspondences between friends or business acquaintances, ship’s manifests, private journals, the notes scribbled on the edges, between lines, or blotted out, and in songs not sung by the minstrel but by the blacksmith."

In my years as an educator I have often asked pupils about defining moments in their lives. More often than not their answers have to do with people who may be obscure by historical standards—a parent, sibling, other relative, or a friend.  Rarely have the large personalities or events of the time made imprints in the character and persona of these young adults.   I believe what the Baron says next is deeply connected to the defining moments of my students and us all.

"The closer you are to the ground the more you will discover that some of the most influential and fascinating people and events have gone unrecorded by the Scribes of Time."

What about you, who and what has shaped your Past, Present, and Future?