Can love be better understood by dissect

Very nice, very analytical, but off-point where it counts. 
 
Virtually EVERY American loves America - each in his own way and for his own reasons. Nationalism comes naturally to people; the loyalty to the "tribe" is as ancient as mankind, and usually can be beneficial, unless bent in other directions. 
 
Things like waving flags, wearing flag pins or military uniforms and medals to parade in are nothing more than ostentations. They "say" something you want people to hear, without saying it. It can mean you're patriotic and love your country, but isn't any kind of proof of that. A person can come to hate his own country, even after serving it - for one of many reasons - and still wave a flag or wear a flag pin. It isn't common, but neither is it unheard of. A person who doesn't do any of those things is wronged when others say he isn't patriotic. He may simply have a distaste for the ostentation of doing it. 
 
Fortunately, liberty allows us to love our homeland the way we see fit, each in his own way. 
 
I love two countries, but am patriotic only to one, my homeland, the U.S. I've lived in Mexico now for 15 years. Now I love a second country. 
 
When saying you love a country, you are taking it in the aggregate, not saying you love every last one of its attributes, however unlovely. I don't like the rampant crime in America, the drug frenzy, the callousness and shallowness of many of the people there, but I DO love America. I just do not have to love everyone in it. 
 
It's the land where I was born, the culture which had a large impact on who I AM - all that aside from the tribal loyalty of nationalism. It's a place where I feel familiar and at home, and that's enough reason to love it. 
 
Mexico is loved, too, in many of the same ways. Although its culture had no formative influence on me, it has altered many of my viewpoints for the better, and I'm glad of it. 
 
I am now a "cosmopolitan" person, taking the best attributes from both countries that are dear to me, and hopefully making me a better person in both places. 
 
Yes, you CAN love a country. Analyzing it only tends to make it seem irrational, when it is anything but. Love is love, and there's never enough of THAT.

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