Welcome Mark Fielding, a.k.a. Apocalypse Daddy to the Lead Dad of the Week.
Like many fathers, the Covid lockdown changed how he looked at what he was doing as a dad. A Brit living in the French Alps, he decided to chronicle his lockdown experience with his wife Bene and their two kids by channeling some Ancient Stoic philosophers. (Lest this sound strange, Stoics are a favorite resource for fathers, ever since Ryan Holiday popularized them with Daily Dad.) It resulted in a book.
“I’m a big fan of the end of the world from the content perspective,” said Fielding, an English teacher turned Web 3 and NFT expert. “At the beginning of Covid, I said to my brother I’m going to write about this. It was clear that we were going to be apart for a while. He said, You know it’s not the end of the world, you know. I said, What if it is?”
It wasn’t, but the chronicling and the intense focus on family in a ski town – where no skiing was allowed during lockdown – got him thinking differently about life, parenting, and, yes, Stoic philosophy.
Marcus Aurelius was a favorite. “The happiness of your life depends on the quality of your thoughts,” he said, quoting the Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher who had at least 14 children with his wife Faustina.
So what did writing the book teach him? “I learned there was a lot to learn,” he said. “The idea was to channel the fun my kids were having into me. And to be a bit selfish and not to be so damn serious all the time, to not worry about the small stuff. It doesn’t matter if the house is a mess, or if I’m late for work, or if they’re late for school. It doesn’t matter in a silo. I learned to chill out.”
And he’s kept it up. Read the book (https://theapocalypsedaddy.com/fatherhood-book/)!
And welcome Marcus, er, Mark to The Company of Dads!
