I am the same age as Mark Martin. When we were kids the Vietnam War was the hot topic, men had long hair, and ‘Rowan and Martin’s Laugh In’ was a hit show.

I have come a long way from the days that I wore midis and flashed the peace sign. Life has taught me abundant lessons, and some of them were really tough. If I were a racetrack, ol’ D.W. might refer to me as a well-seasoned one.

I am old enough to know that some of those hot, hunky drivers out there are young enough to be my children. Sometimes it puts a real damper on staring at them in their form-fitting firesuits; but I digress.

Tony Stewart is certainly no longer a rookie, and he really isn’t a youngster anymore, either, having been born in 1971. Let’s forget that I was in middle school when he was in diapers, and just say that we have both done a few laps around life, and we have learned a few things along the way.

He has caused such a ruckus in the NASCAR world this past week. I do not have to re-state what has been reported on with great fervor. Anyone reading this assuredly knows that Stewart blasted NASCAR for manipulating races, then following a meeting with NASCAR administration he back-pedaled farther than the length of the Talladega infield.

Some fans are expressing great disappointment in him, saying that he should have not retracted anything, or put a new spin on the horses that were out of the barn. To those fans I say this: he had to cave. And haven’t we all had to do that at one time or another?

For a while I worked in a non-profit social services agency, working with families who had children accessing mental health services. I know that I would surprise few people with such observations that government red tape is rampant in the children’s mental health system; that there are so many injustices; and that the wheels are turning much too slowly.

When I first started working there I could hardly contain my frustration with ‘the system’. As I was that young impetuous woman who was once a rebellious hippie, sometimes I opened my mouth and loudly expressed my dissatisfaction with things. I started getting a reputation for tangling with the status quo.

My boss had to reel me in. She had to explain to me, patiently at first, and then not so patiently, that this isn’t how you get things done. You don’t rail at the people you don’t understand; you diplomatically work with them and hope you can make enough of an impression on them that they might consider your points. Like it or not, there are always people who are higher up the ladder than you are, and you have to respect them, even when you would rather kick them. Lots of old sayings apply; one that my boss used a lot was the one about honey catching more flies than vinegar.

On many occasions, even when it was so tempting to screech something about ‘the way it ought to be’, I had to mentally screw my lips shut, and keep them that way. On a few occasions, I ‘caved’. I apologized to people that I considered bureaucratic imbeciles, and retracted statements that I knew to be true. All in the name of the big picture, of course.

I believe Stewart is in that spot right now, having something to say but protocol says he can’t. I understand.

I also know one more thing: that one day he will do what I ultimately did, which was quit. A wise person knows when you have done everything that you were destined to do, you have moved the mountains that you could, and then it’s time to let someone else have the job.