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April 7
Charles Fourier, Notker the Stammerer, and Marjory Stoneman Douglas
David Barnhart
April 07, 2025
Graffiti on the Berlin Wall highlighting pollution, June 2022. Own photo.
Today is the birthday, in 1772, of Charles Fourier, a French philosopher who popularized the ideas of intentional communities, minimum wage, feminism, and personality types. Although he had antisemitic prejudices, his influence on modern ideas like the importance of diversity and generosity for a healthy community have been far-reaching.
Today is also the feast day of Notker the Stammerer, who lived from 840 until 912 in Switzerland at the Abbey of Saint Gall. He was a medieval author and composer.
This marks the birthday, in 1890, of Marjory Stoneman Douglas, journalist, activist, and protector of the Florida everglades. In addition to being active in women’s suffrage and civil rights, she was an important figure in environmental education about the importance of swamps and wetlands.
Today is World Health Day, which marks the founding of the World Health Organization in 1948. The WHO helped eradicate smallpox. Since we now live under an isolationist and fascist regime, it is important to remember the things our country helped put in motion and accomplish with its allies.
Reflection:
Some of Charles Fourier’s sayings:
“Social progress and changes of historical period take place in proportion to the advance of women toward liberty, and social decline occurs as a result of the diminution of the liberty of women.”
and
“The character of a society can be measured by the way it treats its most vulnerable members.”
and
“Ignorant as regards the unity of man with himself, the world is still more ignorant in respect to the two other unities - unity of man with God and the universe.”
Marjorie Stoneman Douglas wrote:
We make such a fetish of the family. I think we've created a tremendous mythology about it. We believe the family must be maintained, it's the basis of society, etc. Yet for a great many of us, the family has been difficult. Many of the troubles of mankind are family troubles, more devastating and more lasting than other kinds of troubles. Almost any well-run orphanage would be better than some families I've known. There are countless unjust and narrow-minded families, and parents who bring up children in hatred for reasons that are invalid.
Just being a family is not enough. There has to be agreement: not a narrowing but a widening, not bitterness and misunderstanding but sensibility and justice.
Prayer: Breath of God, Holy Spirit, you have forever been inspiring people around us who we say “were ahead of their time” after they are gone. Help us to be attentive for where your breath is taking us next. Amen.