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WRITINGS AND TEACHINGS

KENNETH WESTHUES
Professor Emeritus
University of Waterloo, Canada

Updated with quotes for April 2024:

Classic:
Hide! Hide! Witch!
The good folks come to burn thee,
their keen enjoyment hid behind
a gothic mask of duty.
— Mark Clifton, 1953.

Direct:
Mobbing among birds and mammals should not be seen as a metaphor for what happens among us humans. It should instead be recognized as the same thing, the same bursting forth of two instincts at once: the instinct to join with others in an unusually cohesive group, and the instinct to destroy a target.
— "Mobbing: a Natural Fact," lecture at the University of Graz, Austria, 2007.

Garden moment for April 2024:

In forests of the Great Lakes Region of North America, beech trees have a somewhat jungly look by comparison to the stately, symmetrical maples. But beeches look tame by comparison to live oaks in the South. This snaking specimen is at Princess Place Preserve near St. Augustine, Florida.

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