Being senior to everyone else at a dinner party I attended a few weeks ago, I was seated next to the guest of honor, a Federal Court Judge visiting from another state. I’d been told she was 70 and expected to meet someone sedate and reserved. Not so. Her very first question as she turned to face me was: Do you have an iPhone?

            I do!

            Hers was already in hand, and with obvious delight she said: I’ve got to show you my newest app.

            Equally unrestrained about telling her personal story, she spoke of her immigrant family’s struggle and her own path to such high status. We saw clearly her determination to remain a relevant force on the Bench, questioning traditional views.

            I too am resolved to not get left behind, but how do those of us who are the parents of baby boomers, adjust and grow and still maintain our equilibrium, as social mores seem to change almost as much, If not quite so rapidly, as the technology. Here are some facets of my journey:

             Small black and white television sets were just starting to appear in living rooms when my generation came of age. Sentimental family sit-coms and romantic movies set the standards for our marriages. No women "at work" except for Katherine Hepburn. And Spencer, so long suffering.

            Enter Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem and MS magazine and law school.

            So much TV and movie fare is marketed to the young, the population most closely monitored by advertisers, often dizzying. Those growing up in the computer age have mastered the speed of online games, and thirst for fast paced entertainment. Perhaps the population bubble of aging baby boomers, at least those still in consumer mode, will cause something of a slowdown? In the meantime I've given up gathering news from a TV screen. I read the print press or online, at my own pace and with selectivity. I avoid and believe myself immune to the quickened beat of entertainment, but am I?

            A movie classic I may watch, even an Academy Award winning film, now seems to move along so ponderously. I often give up before the end, wishing I could fast forward, not the film, but the script. Has the impatience of youth invaded my brain uninvited?

            And, in what other significant ways have I joined society's new order, jettisoned long held values? My sexual awakening (accompanied by delicately coded parental warnings) preceded the development of the pill. Values born of fear as much as morality were sorely tested, when as parents ourselves we were thrown headlong into the confusion of raising adolescents during the social revolution of the 1960s and 1970s. I well remember how we and our friends struggled with the decision of whether our young adult children would be allowed to share a bedroom with a partner when returning home for a brief stay. Today, if a grandchild brings a loved one to visit, the separate bedroom issue is a non-issue. The discomfort will not even be there. So, I'm coming along.

            Except in one respect, the use of crude language. No adjustment there. That is still chalk breaking on a blackboard. Thankfully my younger colleagues, and my family, defer to my tender sensibilities, at least in my presence. For this, I thank them.

            But the Judge, she swore like a sailor.