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Black or gray: A Baby Boomer's choice

 

So my driver's license came up for renewal this month, and I faced the decision of having to face up to my growing gray, or hang on to as much of my youth as I possibly can.

 

I chose the latter.

 

Not that I'm ashamed of my growing mass of gray hair. 

 

I had the chance to embrace my inner Baby Boomer -- the wise, introspective one who is ready to embrace aging as just another step in the journey.

 

But I chose to embrace my outer Boomer instead -- the one who looks back at me in the mirror each morning and says, "No way in hell you're about to turn 56."

 

I had filled out my license renewal application and waited in an interminable line at the Registry of Motor Vehicles. Question: Why are motor vehicle departments everywhere so notorious for long lines and frequent poor service? Who, in this case, thought it was a good idea with a line snaking out the door to have two people on break, leaving one woman to process?

 

In the area of the renewal that asked for my hair color I tried to be as accurate as possible and wrote "black/gray."

 

As the clerk -- who was very patient, by the way, given the circumstances of the long line -- checked through my renewal she said, "Pick one."

 

"Pick one what?"

 

"A hair color ... you can't be both."

 

So I picked black, which is the predominant color ... pretty much, sort of.

 

Completing the rest of my renewal, she told me the story of the guy who put his hair color down as "bald."

 

She told him to pick a color. "But I'm bald," he implored. "So pick the color before you were bald," she told him.

 

Our exchange about black vs. gray is symptomatic of the cultural tug of war between how society sees Baby Boomers and how we see ourselves.

 

Society, it seems, wants us to shut-up already and move out of the way. Get old and make room, they say.

 

But the Baby Boomers are trying to redefine aging by defying it. We may look like we're aging, we say, but we won't act it. Which is why we'll continue to do some of the crazy **** things we've always done, or maybe even try some crazy **** things we've never done.

 

And if that means telling the registry clerk that we have black hair as long as there's a single strand of black hair left, then so be it.

 

I'll have plenty of time to be gray.

For more commentary and posts on Baby Boomer issues, visit me here.