{"id":5161,"date":"2026-01-15T09:08:26","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T14:08:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/?p=5161"},"modified":"2026-01-15T09:08:26","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T14:08:26","slug":"snapshots-from-the-heart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/15\/snapshots-from-the-heart\/","title":{"rendered":"Snapshots from the Heart"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0<\/em>click here<\/a>
\u00a0
In 1903, a photographer from Seattle named Edward S. Curtis had a big idea.

He dreamed of capturing the faces and the lives of North American Indians, something no one else had ever attempted.

Curtis knew that the clock was ticking. The “old ways” of the First Peoples (and the people themselves) were rapidly disappearing.\u00a0

When Columbus stepped ashore at the outskirts of the New World in 1492, it’s estimated that the North American continent\u00a0was home to about 60 million Indians.\u00a0By Curtis’ time, less than 250,000 remained.\u00a0The rest had succumbed to slaughter, exile, and imported diseases for which they had no immunity.\u00a0\u00a0

Curtis’ big idea was to invest decades in visiting at least\u00a080 remaining tribal groups from Arizona to Alaska,\u00a0win their trust, and progressively capture images that would allow future generations to appreciate Native American culture.\u00a0\u00a0

But when he visited Washington D.C. in search of support, people laughed.

The curators of the Smithsonian were put off by the fact that Curtis had no education.\u00a0He was a grade school dropout, for crying out loud.\u00a0He had no technical training. Who did he think he was?\u00a0

More significantly, there was very little affection for Indians.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0

Teddy Roosevelt, who was president at the time\u00a0and one of America’s most progressive leaders, had famously declared\u00a0that he was almost certain that 9 out of 10 Indians were better off dead, “and I wouldn’t want to inquire too\u00a0carefully into the 10th.”\u00a0\u00a0

Native Americans were popularly depicted as dirty, lazy, immoral, sub-human pagans\u00a0\u2013 a caricature that was reinforced by the “Indian experts” in academia, many of whom, incredibly, had never actually stood face to face with a live Native American.\u00a0\u00a0

Curtis knew, however, that Roosevelt had a special circle of friends who were pursuing\u00a0a big\u00a0idea of their own: the conservation of America’s irreplaceable natural resources.

How could he convince TR that Native Americans were one of those irreplaceable treasures?\u00a0

When Curtis had the chance to visit the White House, he asked the president if he could photograph his children.\u00a0Yes, of course, Roosevelt answered.\u00a0\u00a0

The pictures were breathtaking.\u00a0Curtis had a knack of accomplishing\u00a0something that was beyond\u00a0most photographers: He could find the humanity in his subjects.\u00a0TR himself posed for Curtis.\u00a0He was so pleased with the result that he later made sure that picture accompanied his autobiography.

Roosevelt’s attitude began to thaw.\u00a0Could he have a look at the photographs of Indians that Curtis had already taken, the ones he\u00a0had brought along with him?\u00a0\u00a0

It gradually dawned on the president that this photographer’s Big Idea was an idea he needed to support, heart and soul.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0

With Roosevelt’s endorsement, Edward Curtis spent virtually the remainder of his adult life pursuing his photographic mission.\u00a0

Over a period of 33 years, he carefully crafted\u00a020 spectacular volumes.\u00a0They included over 2,000 images of vanishing peoples representing a vanishing way of life.\u00a0Only 220 complete sets (a single set takes\u00a0up five feet of bookshelf space) were originally\u00a0produced. After almost a century, they are finally being republished.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0

Here\u2019s one<\/a> of a number of sites where you can glimpse examples of Curtis\u2019 work. \u00a0

Along the way, the photographer became committed to preserving\u00a0Indian culture.\u00a0Almost singlehandedly, he wrote down 75\u00a0tribal languages which would otherwise have been lost.\u00a0He wrote out hundreds of Native American songs.\u00a0\u00a0

When the Hopi tribe of the desert Southwest recently launched an initiative to introduce their children to their most ancient traditions, Curtis’ volume proved to be the most valuable resource.

What’s so\u00a0special about his pictures?

Curtis believed that Native Americans were just like everyone else. His photographs show people who felt love, hope, and fear.\u00a0They adored their children, laughed at jokes, and clung to a fierce sense of pride.\u00a0His photographs, in other words,\u00a0turned people who were rejected\u00a0and misunderstood\u00a0into full-fledged human beings.

Is there someone in your life whom you’d just as soon see vanish from the face of the earth?\u00a0

Understanding always begins with reverence for another person’s\u00a0humanity.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0

The people who work for that company that is cutting into your profits or jeopardizing your retirement nest egg aren’t “total losers.” They are men and women who are trying, just like you, to make their way through life.\u00a0

There might be\u00a0days in which it\u00a0feels\u00a0as if your ex is a monster who should be locked away in a windowless dungeon.\u00a0But he or she is a person created in the image of God, and for whom Jesus was gladly willing to die on the cross.\u00a0\u00a0
\u00a0
It may seem impossible to ever be at peace with someone whose vote always cancels out your vote \u2013 that sadly deluded person who watches the wrong news programs and embraces perspectives straight from the Abyss.
\u00a0
But how you respond to the challenge of relating to that person may actually represent the current cutting edge of your spiritual life. It could be the very place where God is most at work in your heart.

The first step to restoring hope\u00a0to our relationships is to reclaim our awareness that we share every other person’s\u00a0humanity.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0

Believing that, and acting on it for Jesus\u2019 sake, is a key to helping\u00a0bring about a world worth living in.

If only we can picture it.\u00a0\u00a0
\u00a0

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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here\u00a0In 1903, a photographer from Seattle named Edward S. Curtis had a big idea. He dreamed of capturing the faces and the lives of North American Indians, something no one else had ever attempted. Curtis knew that the clock was ticking. The “old ways” of the First Peoples (and the people themselves)… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5162,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[343,1058,192],"class_list":["post-5161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-image-of-god","tag-indians","tag-reconciliation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5161"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5161\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5163,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5161\/revisions\/5163"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}