Do you embarrass easily? I’ve been thinking a lot about embarrassment as a result of a chance encounter I had last week.

For many who may not know, I was divorced from my first husband in 1997. My divorce was a bit of a “scandal” in East Meadow-where we lived at the time-as my husband, a member of the school board had a relatively public affair with a PTA vice-president. As my children were very young at the time-one and six-I tried, as best as I could, to ignore the public focus on my divorce and concentrate primarily on my children.

Fast forward to last week. I was standing in my local Staples waiting for photographs to be printed for a trial later on that day when a man approached me. I clearly did not recognize him even after he told me his name. He then went on to tell me that he used to sit next to me in temple when I lived in East Meadow. We chatted until my photographs were ready. As I left he said to me, “I always felt bad for the public embarrassment you suffered back then and I’m glad you’re doing so well now.”

I merely smiled at him and didn’t respond because I felt he meant well with his sentiments. Had I responded I would have told him that I never felt embarrassment about what occurred back in 1997. I have always felt that I handled the circumstances surrounding my divorce modestly and had absolutely no reason to feel embarrassed.

But his comments did get me thinking about the concept of being embarrassed. So that brings me back to my original question, do you embarrass easily?