A holiday-season reminder: we’re all a little maxed out—so let’s stop making a merge into traffic a competitive sport. Today I had one of those tiny moments that doesn’t feel tiny when you’re inside it. I needed to merge, and there was genuinely nowhere else for me to go—lane ending, cars boxed in, the whole “this is happening now” situation. I signaled, matched speed, did the polite little I’m-not-trying-to-cut-you drift, and the driver next to me held the line like their lane was a moral position. No space, no softening—just no—and I felt that quick flash in my chest: disbelief, irritation, and the deeper “wait—are we doing this?” that lingered longer than it…