Eternal Valentines

I was immediately intrigued by this photo when I first saw it on my Yahoo homepage last week. Archeologists on a dig in Italy have uncovered these fossilized skeletons that have literally been locked in an embrace for the past 5,000 to 6,000 years. To me, the image is the ultimate paradox. In the same instant it’s both gruesome and romantic. It’s a harsh reminder of our mortality, and yet it also illustrates human spirit that sometimes transcends our mortality.

One can only speculate as to how these two people came to die nearly cheek to cheek in what is clearly an endearing embrace. The article I read inferred these two people were male and female, and apparently rather young due to teeth that had not yet been ground down with age. Were they two lovers? Perhaps husband and wife? Did they die in this position? Together? Could one have been so heart broken as to lie down next to the partner who had already expired to wait for death? Perhaps they were arranged this way after death as a tribute to their togetherness in life, or as testimony to their love for each other. Love. Were people who lived five or six thousand years ago, who were barbarians by today’s standards, even capable of experiencing love as we define it today?

This brings me to the point of my writing about this here on a FemDom blog. If you read much about this lifestyle, if you participate in any of a couple of forums on the subject, you may note that emphasis is often centered around a D/S component. In the VOT Forum, for example, there is currently a great deal of heated discussion about whether “real” FLRs should include D/S, discipline, orgasm control, or even use of the terms dominant and submissive. One individual even asserts that 90% of FLRs are bogus, simply sham relationships in which men top from the bottom to satisfy their fantasies. Women once again are exploited and manipulated by men. That women rarely initiate FLRs on their own is cited as proof of this.

My intention here is not to belabor that particular debate. I do however want to say that in all the discussions, a term I see used less than any other is LOVE. That’s unfortunate because in my opinion, love is the most critical component of all. Anyone who has read this blog knows that Goddess V and I believe in female-led relationships and in FemDom. But while her role as a domme and mine as her submissive may define who we are within our marriage, it’s the love that we hold for each other that keeps us centered in our relationship.


As for the ancient “Valentines,” we probably won’t see them on a Hallmark card (“My love for you is everlasting”), but I think we will be seeing this image again and again. In magazines and newspapers, on the Internet and in text books. The photo has the cover of National Geographic written all over it. Being a romantic at heart, I think this a good thing because I believe as human beings, we need to be reminded of just what is and what is not important in the grand scheme of things. This image might help in that regard.

Unfortunately, this couple will undoubtedly also be transported to some cold and sterile laboratory for all manner of tests, none of which will tell us the human story behind these two lives, and then eventually to a stuffy museum somewhere where people will gawk at their bones. As a romantic, my vote would be to cover them over where they lay. Walk away and let them be together in their embrace for thousands more years to come.

Oh, and Happy V-day to all those in FemDom relationships!