Everything was going great,,, i even spent hours sending sms to a girl I left behind in Yogya that I became rather fond of… Nina. Something special & fun has been building under the surface for weeks, and last night we hit the point of trying to figure out, out loud, whether this was becoming dating now or what.

To boil 5 hours of conversation down to a few sentences,, all signals were pointing yes… right up to the moment religion became a critical bridge to cross. =/ and by virtue of the fact that I’m not Muslim, it’s pretty much out of the question. Many rules can be bent or requirements satisfied in other ways,,, this isn’t one of them. Her father has stepped in several times to save her from the ambitions of her aunt who was anxious to arrange a fixed marriage (one such attempt happened 4 weeks ago)… but his daughter’s happiness is more important to him- and he’s allowing her to choose her own boyfriend/husband. (I like him already). Consideration of dating or marrying outside of their religion though is a bridge too far.

Sad. I can’t say this is the first time the name of religion became an insurmountable dating obstacle. I tried to date a Baptist girl once in college. I wasn’t Baptist enough or Hispanic enough for her parents either.