Freedom, patriotism and following your heart

Happy Birthday America! A few years ago, when I first moved to the States, I did it for love. Not for the country - because that didn't matter at the time, I would have gone to live in a capsule by the moon. I was just following my heart.

Everyone has their own America, and I grew to love mine. After serendipity and passion had brought me to the States, I fiercely fell in love with it. Now I believe that I would live in America no matter what. And I hate to hear anyone who has not experienced first-hand the good in the States, criticize the bad. (I have heard people make highly generalized and throw-away comments especially in random acts of facebook scorn).  Maybe it is because I am an outsider, who has adopted the States, with all its good and bad, with all its apple pies and NSA, that I feel the sting just like I believe an American would, except without the convictions which come with generational patriotism and home-grown pride.

Perhaps it is because I'm not all that patriotic about my own Belgian roots that I analyze it a little more and delight in it when I see it in others, I love it when the Irish get excited about a football match or St Patrick's day (Aside: Don't call it St. Patty's day, I believe this just came about because of the American habit to pronounce T's as D's and is an incorrect spelling of Paddy and drives the Irish mad!!), I'm sorry to say I have yet to see strong Belgian patriotism - unless it comes out collectively, reactively to something negative, for example a crime or a wish to linguistically prevail or conversely as a microcosm - locally, for a youth football team perhaps. I may be wrong and I hope I don't offend my fellow Belgians out there. This is a Belgian person who has never lived in Belgium, who grew up in Ireland and loves Ireland just as fiercely as I love the States. So here's to Freedom, Patriotism and Following your heart!!

"It is easy to take liberty for granted, when you have never had it taken from you. "

 ~Author unknown, sometimes attributed to M. Grundler

Freedom is never free. 

~Author Unknown

I wish that every human life might be pure transparent freedom. 

~Simone de Beauvoir

What is the essence of America?  Finding and maintaining that perfect, delicate balance between freedom "to" and freedom "from." 

~Marilyn vos Savant