Cousins in Love

Cousins in Love

     “Paul, I can’t give you a baby. But are you happy with me?”
     “Rosie, given that we’re second cousins we may be better off childless. The potential for birth defects is there.”
     “Oh Paul there is only a two percent greater risk with people as far apart as us on the family tree. The point is moot because I’m barren. I sold my womb to the devil in exchange for beauty. I am really pretty! There are always compensations in life.”    
      He says, “You are gorgeous, just like your Mom. Beauty must run in our family.”
     “Paul, my middle name is trouble. I’ve caused my family no end of heartaches. Marrying you was the best thing I ever did. But my parents think ours is an unholy union.”
     Paul says, “All the way in the beginning the Bible had cousins in wedlock. Genesis 24 verse 4 ─ ‘Go instead to my homeland, to my relatives, and find a wife there for my son Isaac.’ In fact, Biblical scholars find evidence that Mary was the daughter of  Jacob and Joseph was the son of Jacob’s brother. Mary and Joseph were therefore first cousins.”
     “But Joseph didn’t make love to Mary. In fact he was a virgin.”
     He laughs, “If you believe Joseph didn’t sleep with Mary I’ve got some oceanfront property in Arizona to sell you.”
     “Well maybe he had experiences before tying the knot with Mary. But once hitched he was celibate except for that one seminal act of impregnating Mary. God gave them his green light to make whoopee without sin, so Jesus and the whole Christian shebang could be born.”
     “Brilliant! But honey God doesn’t play favorites. Cousins don’t have to be the parents of Jesus to wed. Nowhere in scripture is a marriage between cousins prohibited.”
     “I feel much better.”