Education Week’s February 9th issue features an article titled “Native Ambition” and two-page spread of this photo. The caption reads:

An 81/2-foot bronze statue greets students at Santa Fe Indian School. Artist Estella Loretto, whose daughter attended the school, says her work, “Morning Prayer,” is meant to symbolize the spiritual idea that each day is a gift and a blessing.
Photo credit?Sevans

The two girls pictured in the photo drew my attention, partly because they didn’t look particularly reverent, given the “theme” of the photo, and partly because I couldn’t figure out what they were doing down there against the wall.

At first I thought the young lady on the right might be looking at something through a magnifying glass, or holding some eyeglasses up to her face.

Nope. She’s applying Maybelline’s Great Lash Mascara, easily identifiable, upon inspection, by the signature pink barrel and green cap. (Sorry, I can’t tell whether it’s the waterproof or regular formula from this photo.)

I don’t think the photo journalist meant to imply that the application of mascara is exactly tantamount to Morning Prayer?perhaps he just saw it as a cosmetic gift and a blessing for some.