Chasing cars...

I don't know if anyone else has been reading the Times this week, but they've been running a terrific daily series on Saudi Arabia. The articles focus specifically on what it's like to be a young person looking for love in the world's most conservative Muslim country.

I highly suggest you check it out. They haven't, as far as I've been able to find, set up a separate section of their website for the series. But here's the link to today's story. If you scroll down to the bottom, you'll see links to the other pieces.

This is a terrific look at the day to day life inside one of the world's most influential countries. Saudi Arabia, in addition to being the largest country in the Middle East, is also (arguably) the most influential. While Iraq and Iran might be in the news more on a regular basis, the other Islamic governments look to the Saudis for leadership on an international front.

The country, and (to a large extent) the Middle East as a whole, is at a crossroads. In an era of globalization and an ever-shrinking world, the isolationist, dictorial, religious-run governments of the past are losing their iron grip over their people - in particular, the younger generation. With cell phones, blogs and web 2.0 networking, lines of communication are penetrating fundamentalist areas like never before. People in their teens and twenties, who once had no future but that which was thrust upon them, now have something that many of us Americans take for granted - choice.

The reason these articles are so striking is that any potential rebellion against traditional values or ways of doing things won't start on an international level; it's not necessarily about opening dialog with leaders, permeating the Middle East with America's Coca-Cola culture or fighting jihadist fire with military firepower. Rather, this is a change that will take place on a personal level in the minds and hearts of the Islamic world's next generation. Each boy and girl will have to make a choice as to the direction their country will take as they step into adulthood.

The main motivator? Not Muhammad, not a hatred of Israel or the west and not oil money. It's love. The simple flirtatious courtship rituals we've held as routine here in the West are what could potentially change the direction of the Middle East. It's incredible to read about, really. Perhaps love really will conquer all? Only time will tell.

Do yourself a favor: read the articles. See what it's like to be a boy, desperate to win the heart of a girl and at the same time, uphold the traditions of Islam. See what it's like to be a girl and forced to dress up like a man to find love and see how the other half lives. Be a teen in the Middle East, in a pack of cars, flying down the highway and trying to catch a glimpse of a girl behind a veil.