Okay—basic Driving 101:

If you hit a pedestrian, you immediately fail the test.

Fair enough.

If you fail to yield—even without hitting anyone—you still fail.

And if you do hit someone, the first thing out of your mouth will be:

“I didn’t see them!”

Because unless you’re a psychopath, you would have yielded—if only you’d seen them.

But that’s the problem, isn’t it?

We’re not seeing.

And worse—we’re not yielding.

Out on the highways? Forget it.

If someone has a yield sign, I assume it will be ignored.

If it’s a yield situation, I treat it like a trap.

Safer that way.

But it’s not just the roads anymore.

It’s viral.

It’s crept into daily life—social spaces, conversations, sidewalk etiquette, checkout lines.

No one yields. Because yielding is seen as weakness.

As if, by letting someone else go first, you’ve lost something.

What exactly?

A few horsepower?

A prime seat at the next barbecue?

A rung on the ladder of imagined importance?

Listen—

You yield because you see somebody.

You yield because you let them go first—not forever, just this moment.

You don’t vanish.

You don’t get demoted.

You don’t get sent to the “B” list for parties.

Yielding doesn’t make you invisible.

It makes others visible.

Yielding is how we remember:

It’s not about you.

And here’s the real kicker:

Selfishness takes no practice.

Yielding does.

Yielding is living life artfully.

So yield.

Be artful.

Make art.