You didn’t choose where you started, and neither did the person you’re judging.

Starting points are distributed without consent. The family, the town, the money, the body, the era, none of it was selected by anyone, and the distance a person has travelled is invisible when you only see where they currently stand. Judgment almost always compares positions rather than distances.

Next time someone’s behaviour seems obviously wrong to you, add one sentence in your head: I do not know what they started with. It does not excuse anything and it is not meant to. It slows the verdict down long enough for you to respond to a person rather than to a position on a map.