It’s weirdly easier to be patient with a stranger than with your own brother. Notice that.

Strangers get your best manners because you have no history with them and nothing yet to forgive. The people closest to you get the leftovers, partly because you already know how the argument goes and partly because you assume they will still be there tomorrow. Patience, it turns out, is often just uncertainty about whether someone will stay.

Pick one person at home this week and give them the stranger treatment for a day. Let a sentence finish. Ask before deciding what they meant. Notice how much of your irritation was old and how little of it was about today.