This essay was awarded a Mitchell Prize for essays on sustainable futures in 1979, making Robert L. Chianese, Ph. D., a 1979 Mitchell Laureate. It is published in Coomer, James C. ed. Quest for a Sustainable Society. Pergamon Press. New York, 1981, "Values lag behind the genius of technology" --A. Resnais, Hiroshima Mon Amour MYTHS ABOUT THE FUTURE AND PERPETUAL GROWTH Our visions of the future reveal our dreams, fears and realistic expectations about the place and time in w

Published in the St. Louis Beacon, special to the Beacon 6:18 am on Wed, 11.20. 2013 The passing of sex researcher Virginia Johnson the last week of July at the age of 88 in St. Louis (and the Showtime series) brought back a remarkable experience my wife and I had at the famous Masters and Johnson clinic. No, it wasn’t sex therapy we needed but a baby; and we couldn’t have one. So in 1968, after a year of trying to conceive, we went to their Reproductive Biology Research Lab,

By Robert Chianese, Class of 1960, Hamilton High School, Trenton, New Jersey (2016) The Death of a High School Classmate provokes a lasting memory of a teenage crush, and regret. Belated Confessions of a female high school classmate: After I learned about his recent death, and his life of dealing with alcohol and depression, I only hope that over these fifty-five plus years he may gotten a little pleasure—if he ever did know—that someone had a major crush on him for at least

This eco-art exhibit at the Museum of Ventura County, entitled Cruel Season: Artists Reflecting on Drought and Fire, (Sep 13 - Nov 23, 2014) tasked artists to prepare our community for what could be a horrendous fire season. This is "occasional" art in the service of civic engagement. (I created a website for the exhibit: http://rlchianese.wix.com/cruelseason.) I have three poems, one with a photograph, and an essay in the exhibit and read poems in the gallery the night of S

Valve Job By Robert Chianese. October 23, 2019 I was doing my work out, walking up hills, puffing a bit, waiting to hear when my busted shoulder would get repaired—rotator cuff and partially detached bicep—when I told myself, wait a minute, I have shortness of breath, not referred shoulder pain. An echocardiogram showed stenosis of my aortic valve. I could see it if I twisted my head to glimpse the screen: white dots on what I took to be my valve, which are calcium deposits t