“Mercy and compassion aren’t about deserving. Or they shouldn’t be, not if you genuinely want to make things better. Compassion can be hard to give, and so easy to give up on. I did that for longer than I’d like to admit. Mercy and compassion are so often regarded as pointless, weakness or all cost and no payoff. I once showed mercy to a man who tried to murder me, and that choice saved my soul.
