Gray is okay. I’ll be 65 in June, a true senior citizen. What makes me lively, hip and cool isn’t my hair, is it?

I don’t want the chemicals seeping into my scalp. I want to save time and money. I’m told that I have “bright” gray hair. And I can always change my mind. But I’m curious.

Men look great with shimmery gray hair; they’re even sought after for their elegant appearance. Women look old, which is the established norm. When I first moved to Tucson eight years ago a very straightforward friend said, “You’ll never meet a man with that mop of gray hair. You look like a grandmother!”

Lately, I’ve thought it would be nice to be a grandmother someday. I’m of that age. If it doesn’t happen, I’ll still have plenty to do in my life (no pressure B and E).

Dan was the one who brought the salon.com story about going gray to my attention. He even encouraged me to consider it.

The other day I told a colleague about my determination to stop coloring my hair, mentioning that a few friends admitted they couldn’t return to gray because “they would look old.” My colleague replied that her 90-year-old mother-in-law still bleaches her hair blond “so she won’t look old, but she is f****ing old!”

Returning to the ’60s at the Tucson Festival of Books panel next Sunday and writing a story about the heyday of children’s bookselling 30 years ago are appropriate memory jolts. Both will take me to another time in my life. How about going gray, brightly?