Dawn Landes, Brigid Kaelin - Oh Amelia Lyrics

Who owns the sea
Who owns the sky
Out here underneath the stars
We set our course and fly
Of course we fly

Oh Amelia, I’m about as old as you
When you took your solo flight in 1932
Oh Amelia, Maybe our paths crossed
When you came down from the clouds to avoid the frost

How did you want to be remembered
How did you want to be remembered
Even though you lost the adventure
Was it still worth while

How did you want to be remembered
How did you want to be remembered
Even though you lost the adventure
Was it worth your time

Who owns the sea
Who owns the sky
Out here underneath the stars
We’ll be at home awhile
You and I

Oh Amelia, Did you feel any doubt
Falling from 3000 feet that time that you spun out
Oh Amelia, You caught yourself, alright
And showed the world a woman’s place
Is sometimes first in flight

How did you want to be remembered
How did you want to be remembered
Even though you lost the adventure
Was it still worth while

How did you want to be remembered
How did you want to be remembered
Spread your silver sings of adventure
And go out in style

The best things of mankind are as useless as Amelia Earhart’s adventure. They are the things that are undertaken not for some measurable result,
but because someone, not counting the costs or calculating the consequences, is moved by curiosity, the love of excellence, a point of honor, the compulsion to make or to understand.

They have in them the free and useless energy with which alone they surpass themselves. It is wild and it is free! But all the heroes, the saints and the seers, the explorers and the creators partake of it. They do not know what they discover. They do not know where their impulse is taking them. They can give no account in advance of where they are going or explain completely where they have been.
They do the useless, brave, noble, the divinely foolish and the very wisest things done by man.

AND WHAT THEY PROVE
TO THEMSELVES AND TO OTHERS
IS THAT WE ARE NO MERE CREATURES OF HABIT.

NO MERE AUTOMATONS
IN OUR ROUTINE
NO MERE COGS
IN THE COLLECTIVE MACHINE
BUT THAT IN THE DUST OF WHICH WE’RE MADE
THERE IS ALSO FIRE
LIGHTED NOW AND THEN
BY GREAT WINDS FROM THE SKY!

How do you want to be remembered
How do you want to be remembered
Even if you lose the adventure
Is it worth your while
How do you want to be remembered

*Ending text is set from Walter Lippmann’s column upon the death of Amelia Earhart , New York Herald Tribune - July 8, 1937