Carnal Reason points out some neglected merits of courtesy. 

“My nine year old daughter asked why she should be polite to someone who has been rude to her. Courtesy is not a tip handed out to people who deserve it. Courtesy is not about being nice; it is not even about other people. Courtesy is a discipline with the goal of mental clarity under emotional stress. As long as anger is not allowed to displace manners, the mind remains in control. The polite man remains rational. The man who rages becomes unthinking, and thereby stupid.”

Yes, I rather like that.

Readers based in or around New York may be interested in Michael Light’s latest exhibition at the Hosfelt Gallery, 531 W. 36th Street. Bookworks runs from May 18th until June 30th and features an ongoing series of aerial photography studies, from the New Jersey wetlands and urban Los Angeles to copper mining in Utah (site of the world’s largest man-made hole).

I interviewed Michael Light for Eye magazine and the piece can be read in full here.