Two for the Price of One

"Write of humiliating exposure." and "Write about a time you felt compassion unexpectedly."
I am combining these two, because they both remind me of a specific time in my life.
I won't go in to the details, but it was a dark time, and you either know what I am talking about or you don't. I felt humiliated and betrayed. I felt vulnerable to the wagging tongues of a small town. I felt exposed and pitiable.
The surprise came when I felt compassion for a person who was involved in the betrayal and humiliation. I felt a lot of other things too, of course. But I even amazed myself when I was able to understand and forgive. Some people have told me that they would not have been able to do what I did in that circumstance. To that I would reply: you really can get to know yourself in times of adversity, if you are open to it. What I found out about myself is that I held it to be more important to hold fast to my ideals than to avenge a wrong or hold on to resentment. I thought long and hard about it, but that was only in order to convince myself that what I knew in my heart to be true (forgiveness is the way) was, in fact, the best route for me to a better place. So, the compassion I felt for another was really the same as the compassion I felt for myself.