Rabbi's Week in Review Blog

Fay and I finished the most recent season of “Bridgerton,” one of Shonda Rhimes’ many acclaimed television creations. The setting for the series is early 19th-century London, a time and place of greater racial equality, due at least in part to the marriage of then King George II to Queen Charlotte, of Black Portuguese descent. That it facilitates many of the characters being both Black and of nobility is a welcome piece of the show.

For those who somehow have avoided this guilty pleasure, the protagonist is the character Penelope Featherington (played by Nicola Coughlan), who anonymously writes  a regular gossip piece under the pseudonym of Lady Whistledown. Without giving too much away, Penelope evolves from a marginalized if not socially awkward person, who finds her voice and her power via Lady Whistledown.

What intrigues me about the Penelope character is the way she raises the import of her writing from mere gossip to that of keen observer. “Marginalized” can be synonymous with “ignored,” and/or deemed to be nonthreatening. Penelope’s pen is hardly benign, calling out the foibles of those who don’t live in the shadows. 

As she realizes the power of her pen, she also realizes that it can do harm. She convincingly explains that she holds with admiration those who are not compelled to live in the shadows, for the way in which they openly live their lives. Her special power is not only her writing ability and her powers of observation but also her sensitivity in relating to others, even as she struggles to find her own voice and her own identity.

I do love that the two most powerful characters in the show are women — Penelope and Queen Charlotte. That said, the message I find most compelling is how we ignore, and thereby underestimate, the introvert. As a community, we are always challenged to find pathways for those in the shadows to find their voices, not only for themselves but also for what they can contribute to our community.

As we read in our Torah the ongoing story of the arguably introverted Moses, this is a lesson about which we should be reminded regularly.