"My lowest self says: "That person is acting like a total jerk!" My slightly higher self says: "That person is acting like a total jerk right now only because he's going through a really hard time in life, and his parents never taught him how to behave better, and he might have some sort of mild mental illness, and also he has a drinking problem...so I should try to be more compassionate and generous toward sad, tragic, miserable people like that." My even higher self says: "We are all just flawed and frightened human beings in an uncertain world, struggling to survive."