A young, bathing-suit clad Elizabeth Taylor graces the cover of July’s Vanity Fair, and the story inside is just as breathtaking. It is the tabloid-savvy tale of Liz and her longtime love Richard Burton. The pair met on the set of the movie Cleopatra (1963), and began an affair while both were married. They would go on to marry and divorce each other. Twice.
What interested me most in this epic love story were the excerpts from the never-before-seen letters written back and forth between Liz’n’Dick (the paparazzi name that existed long before Brangelina). These letters exhibit passion at its best—passion meaning both anger and erotica. Take this passage from a Richard to Liz letter: “I don’t mean, for a second, that you are in any way comparable with a pen. And yet you are, like this divine pen, heavy and light at the same time . . . And since we’re talking of pens and you, how to watch the ink splurge out of the pen . . . reaching out from the inner depth of the divine body. Will you, incidentally, permit me to fuck you this afternoon? Yours truly (you just have to come into the room), R.B.”
This reminded me of a journal technique I came up with a few yeas ago: The Couples Journal. This is a journal you share with your lover—writing down all your fantasies both romantic and sexual. Then you leave the book carelessly around the house for your significant other to find, fulfill, and ideally write back. Of course, tell your main squeeze that this is one journal s/he can read. Here’s how/why it works:
• Experts emphasize that you have to communicate to your partner what you do and don’t want sexually, but there’s still a part of all of us that just wants our lover to know what we want without having to say anything. In this case, the journal plays middleman. Write your fantasies down and one day they just might come true. As sexual beings we evolve. We change. Or we simply need to spice things up. It’s a good idea to keep you partner posted on all of these developments.
• While writing love letters back and forth is a fine thing to do, there’s something a about a journal/diary that is forbidden. So even thought you give each other permission to read it, it still feels naughty to read when no one is around, which heightens the experience.
• One way to increase the forbidden factor is to write to a 3rd person party. This will really make your other half feel as though s/he’s stumbled upon something s/he shouldn’t be reading. “Dear Brigitte Bardot . . .”
• You don’t have to write just future fantasies. You can also reminisce about a night gone right. “I loved when you did that back flip thing . . .” Telling someone what s/he did right in bed pretty much guarantees s/he’ll do it again.
• If only one of you enjoys writing your fantasies down, that’s fine. This can still work as long as the other one is willing to read. I can attest to the immense benefits of letting your lover read your after-sex thoughts. Oh. My. God. Um. Mm. Yum.
• Be careful. I suggest only doing this with a husband, live-in boyfriend, someone you really, REALLY trust. As with a sex-tape, this does lend to ending up on the Internet in the event of a bad break-up.
For more excerpts from the Liz-n-Dick letters visit LetterLover.net.
