This post made me think a lot about a relationship between individuals especially the ones that are between you and your siblings. Unfortunately I've never had a sibling. Due to this absence of relationship, I can only talk about my few experiences to understand this profound relationship. Over the years, before even meeting and spending time with my cousins I have come across friends and their cousins.
In a sibling relationship, there are certain boundaries that need to be protected. It can be set on various levels of commitments. For e.g. It's quiet common that siblings fight, siblings do not share their secrets with each other except in certain situations and sometimes siblings cannot be comfortable around hanging out with each other, Siblings also look out for each other, there is a strong sense of protectiveness, siblings can even turn against each other... the dynamic of such a relationship is something that I cannot fully understand and I do lack this sort of experience, so I will not talk about this further.
But when it comes down to the relationship between cousins, it's the most profound of types and gives you the easy-to-gel-with sort of alliance. According to me the word "Cousins" can be broken down into three parts.
'Co' which stands for Common
'U' which is short for Union and 'Sins' that explains by itself.
So how did I come to this conclusion?
Well it's experience and being observant. My friends' cousins are so like each other, they share everything with each other, at times even drink from the same glass, have the same likes and dislikes and the synergy of thoughts is completely in sync with each other. Also there are times when you can actually hear what the other person is thinking... this may not always be true but the one thing that bonds them together are their 'Sins'. In this alliance between cousins - Sins are actually not an immoral act, a bad something but a common behavior that only cousins can find comfort and set the tone of understanding with each other. Somehow I have seen and experienced this all the time...
For e.g. One of my best friend loves to cook food and luckily he found himself a cousin very early in his life who shares the same 'Sin'. Apparently... In my case, I have a cousin who loves biking... well so do I! I have a cousin who loves gaming and so do I. Even though these may not seem like Sins there are somethings which are well understood unexplained especially over here. My cousins if you're reading this, I feel that you would understand where I am getting at and the other sins that we share...
That's the most intriguing part of this relationship. Most of the cousins share one or more sins with each other and it is because of this common union of sins makes this relationship so ardent. Hence it becomes Common-Union-Sins.
In short - Cousins!