Purple is associated with spirituality, enlightenment, and transcendence of ordinary reality. As young adults, we all -- men and women alike -- tend to avoid purple, suggesting a lack of spiritual dimension in our lives. As we get older, our minds turn to thoughts of life and death. What is it all about? What is coming? Did our lives have meaning? And with this new spirituality often comes a fondness for the color purple.

Besides this spiritual aspect, people who like purple are intuitive, imaginative, and highly creative. They have a greater sense of the intangible than most people; they don't have to see it to believe it. Purple people are easy to live with and hard to know; sometimes their friends don't even understand them. These characteristics often show up in older people, especially women after menopause. Their families are grown, and they have time to indulge their inner lives. They begin writing that novel they always wanted to write, take up painting or other artistic ventures, read books that help them find the answers to life.

It is this striving for meaning and purpose that gives us an affinity for purple.

There are two faces of purple. When it as on the reddish side, it embraces sensuality; when it is on the bluish side, it embraces spirituality. Trying to balance those opposites is one of the reasons purple people are so enigmatic. Just when someone thinks they have the exciting red side of them figured out, the tranquil blue side colors their lives. It has been said that because of this balance, purple is the ideal color. If so, then purple people are at the pinnacle of life: sensual and spiritual, exciting and tranquil, warm and cool.

So, if after menopause you find yourself gravitating toward purple, embrace it. You earned it.