My favorite online thesaurus defines gravity as ‘high seriousness of manner or bearing’. When I was searching for just the right word to match with Mark Martin, that term seemed a very credible fit.

It is nearly impossible for any racing fan today not to think of Mark Martin a lot of the time, and not just due to his accomplishments in NASCAR. Known as one of the most driven and focused motorsports stars on the track, he has also been the subject of numerous ‘will-he-or-won’t-he’ articles in the last months, regarding his impending retirement from the Cup series.

If there were an ‘Official Comedian of NASCAR’, he or she would get great mileage out of the ‘well-no-I’m-not-well-maybe-I-am-well-nothing-is-written-in-stone-yet-well-let’s-wait-and-see’ teasers that have been steadily dangling in front of the media for quite a while.

This is no jab at the Martin PR camp, or the driver himself. I know that many things develop in chronological time lines that people don’t anticipate, some which can change the course a person is on quite radically. I remember a few years back when Martin was having something of a dry spell, and Valvoline pulled their sponsorship. For such a competitive person, those two realities must have been difficult to endure. At that point in time, if you had told him that in 2005 he would light himself on fire, and then be in the Chase in 2006, he might have been skeptical.

Now that he’s back in contention, how hard it must be not to keep trying to grab for that brass ring. For a while that prize was pretty much on the other side of the merry-go-round we know as NASCAR, and is now temptingly within reach.

Martin’s fierce competitiveness is what makes him a great possibility for that Championship. Every fan knows that he works his brain with the same resolute thoroughness as he does his body, so inside and out Martin is a solid contender.

I often wish that I had some of Martin’s gravity. If I were more serious about the piles of paper and mail that keep growing around my computer space, they would not be piles anymore but efficiently filed-away bits of information, easily re-located for future reference. If I had some of his pluck I would have already written the many stories that have played out in my imagination, but never made their way to my keyboard. If I had a bit of his intrepidness, I would not be so unwilling to look at parts of my character that need worked on.

On the other hand, when I see Martin following a ferocious win referring to his vehicle as junk, or indicating that his own performance was poor (inviting occasional jokes about if from the NASCAR commentators), I am reminded of the down side of high expectations of yourself (and the possibility of getting teased about it).

If I suddenly did file away all of my papers, but then cursed myself for the crummy way I did it, would that be any better than not filing the papers at all? If I finally did write that novel that is burning away at the back of my brain and then considered it trite and substandard, what inner-kick is there in that?

No, I’m not meant to have the gravity of Mark Martin. I spend too much time with my head in the clouds, and it’s kind of nice up there.

God Bless the folks that do, though. They are the ones that get things done, and possibly even win a championship.