Tales from then and now considers the present a gift from the past. Much is known about leaders throughout history. Little is known about the followers. Without them, the wheel of time would turn at a snail’s pace. Throughout the past, these followers have built and re-built the foundation of the now. Their persistence has yielded tremendous change, often for the better.

Tales from then and now carries forward the experience of the follower in the environment established by a leader. Common threads between the deceased and the living are resurrected. They weave into a wheel of time that doesn’t always move forward but also backward and sideways. These followers portray a side of history often forgotten or not known at all. Yet their spirit lives on in future generations who like them may end up being forgotten or never known.

Tales from then and now encapsulates the desire of all humans to do better. Everyone, from leaders to followers have left their mark. This includes you and me. Common folk going about our lives behind the scenes yet influential in our own right. Egalitarian in nature, the wheel of time permits leaders and followers to hop on and jump off when it is their turn. The time spent on this merry-go-around creates a record in the now which later becomes the then, ultimately unraveled in the tales from then and now.

The first book in the tales from then and now series is “The Essence of Time”. It follows the construction of a transalpine railroad in the Swiss Alps in the late 19^th century. This railroad including a 15,000-meter-long tunnel dug by hand elevated the tiny landlocked nation of Switzerland into one of the richest in the world. Join me in the journey of the leaders and followers who left their mark unearthed in the now by a teenager hiking Mount Gotthard.