Today, I decided that Friday would be my day for sharing some letters whom famous people wrote that inspired and transformed the world. These letters are very relatable and relevant, although some were written decades ago. I remember watching SATC movie part 1, where Mr. Big, to get her back, sent Carrie some love letters written by famous and beloved musicians, thinkers, philosophers and authors. I cannot help but be curious and intrigued by how these great minds feel about love and sacrifice, faith and failures, challenges and triumph.
There is something about letter writing that makes us all very human. Maybe because we tend to pour our hearts out onto these pages trusting that the eyes reading them are in league with our minds and emotions. Maybe because writing private, much more intimate, letters is an art of marrying our heart and mind ~ a very powerful and compelling combination. Perhaps, letters also give us a context of the society that the author and reader belong to ~ the age, moral standards, milieu. Through these written letters, we will also see how they defied traditional customs, how they struggled to fit two or more inconsistent truths, how they tried hard to establish their convictions amid the great transition of their times.
We are lucky to be part of this generation where we have access to these intimate self-portraits of great thinkers drawn through words ~ their sensibilities, idiosyncrasies, pleasures, guilt and perhaps universal view.
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Anyways, being a curious kid back then I searched the books and found out that she, aside from being an author, is the first woman pilot (aviatrix) who fly solo across the Atlantic. She also attempted to circumnavigate (fly around) the world but she disappeared over the Pacific Ocean in 1937. From the looks of it, she sees flying as a very liberating experience, which unsurprisingly becomes the backbone of her life conviction - freedom. More than a very independent spirit, Earhart also has this radical conviction about marriage. Written February 7, 1931, our letter today is written in the morning of her wedding to George Putnam, her publicist. Seeing marriage as a threat to her freedom, she started the letter directly emphasizing their deliberate discussion of sharing life together and managed to finish it with firmness and careful stress of her love for freedom. She drew a very brave set-up of marriage for her and her soon to be husband.
There is by the way a film entitled Amelia (Mira Nair, 2009) starring Hilary Swank. You can check here
Also, Amelia refused to have her last name changed, so she continued using her name until the very end.
Sources:
1. Amelia Earhart official website http://www.ameliaearhart.com/
2. Brainpickings: Amelia Earhart on Marriage http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/12/11/amelia-earhart-on-marriage/?utm_source=buffer&utm_campaign=Buffer&utm_content=bufferd6940&utm_medium=twitter
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