The Softening

When you stop bracing against other people, your thinking about them naturally starts to soften. It doesn't require a moral effort, a forced empathy exercise, or a forgiveness worksheet. It just happens mechanically as your own mind settles.

It usually looks something like this:

• He’s a jerk.
• He always acts like a jerk.
• He sometimes does jerky things.
• He is dealing with something heavy, and it comes out as jerky things.
• He is living in a world where, right now, it looks to him like his only option is to do jerky things.

You don't have to force the progression, only wait for the weather to clear.