IF IT WERE YOU

Multiple people can do the same thing,
say the same thing,
seem to have the same attitude, or
act in the same way, yet
we treat them different
dependent on who they are.
Do we allow a behavior to trigger
the same emotion
regardless of who it is?

Am I as irritated by the
slow driver who is a stranger
as I am by the slow driver who
I know is my sibling?
Does my knowing you mean
I average things out over time
vs judging based on one experience.
Do we judge others
by the one thing we know they did
while judging others
by the average of our experiences?

We are all the masked singer for someone.
for someone,
we are the one who irritated them,
got on their last nerve,
drove too slow,
cut them off,
or engaged in whatever it was that
made you want to cuss them out
until we were unmasked
and you realized who it was.
Who are you the masked singer for?
What if it were you?