@kus-knee

Do we ever freeze people in time for a past mistake that they've made?

Yes I sometimes do - but not for a long time. That would be bearing grudges. I do get mad at someone sometimes cause I'm human, too and sometimes I put up a temporary wall to calm both sides. Specially if the other person is way out of line and loves going beyond borders - in other words - no salt in the mouth.

But once I'm calmed - I forget - its enough but it doesn't mean it's okay - it just means - I don't want to reside in that anger cause its not healthy and so forgiving comes - the hardest thing to do.

Do we take a snapshot of their personality in a bad moment and use that as our reference point for their character?

No, I don't. I prefer to experience the person personally and find out the consistency - that speaks more for me. Nobody is perfect and if we don't want to be judged we'd better not either. If the person is consistently kind to me I only believe that - if the person is consistently an ass - and the person is already an adult we can't change that anymore. I may get angry at that person but dwelling in that anger won't help. In the same manner if someone says that person is nice but I experienced otherwise and consistently, then I'd believe what I experienced more.