What makes me proud that I am Czech?

Since I came back from Scotland I do have a big issue being happy, or even ok with being "home".

There are so many things that bother (and bug and frustrate and upset) me about "my" country and "my" people.  At the same time I realise that I have been very critical in the past. 

However, before I tell you why do I occassionally feel proud that I am Czech, let me think about this for a while:

          What makes you and me Czech? 

• Is it the consumption of "our" beloved liquid bread - beer  (which I hate) that is not even owned by Czechs anymore?

• Or is the the consumption of "our" řízek and štrůdl (which is also is also a traditional German food)?

• Is it the way that we celebrate Christmas...a purely Christian tradition when most of "us" do not believe in God anymore and actually we have the highest number of atheists in Europe?
• Is it the place that I share with "my people"...people that can be so mean, ignorant and negative that I have a hard time relating to?
• Is it our language that many people make mistakes in writing, the language that absorbes new English words daily and is predicted to die out?

• Is it the space we live in together and polute and destroy at the same time?
• Is it our history, that is being so badly taught at schools by underpaid and bitter teachers?

• Is it the traditions that are being ignored every year more and more?

You know what? 

It amazes me, how proud Americans are of their nation and how shamefull it sometimes feels to be Czech. 

What happened to us? 

Why do we feel a bit of a resistance saying...I am actually from the Czech Republic, when meeting new people. 

Why to we wave our flag mostly only during the international sports tournaments? Is it only then when the football or hockey team wins a game, that we feel proud that we are Czech, because "WE won"?

As for my point of view...The sport games do not do it for me.

On the other hand, I do feel proud of Czech people that made a difference. The Czech people that made a difference for other people.

When I was small, I never really aspired to be a pop or a film star. 
I actually wanted to be famous, so that I would be able to make it to the bank notes. 

Not because I would like to see there my face. 
It was because I knew that those people made a big difference for the Czech people. 
They devoted their lives so that our country would flourish, our language would be preserved and our politics would go on the right track. 

Those people I am proud of, I am proud that they were Czech and they make me proud that I am Czech too.

> When listening to music of Bedřich Smetana, I can hear the river Vltava flowing through the capital city Prague.

> I am proud that such a beautiful music that Antonín Dvořák composed, when I hear those tunes I am so incredibly proud of him and overwhelmingly proud that he was Czech and I am Czech.

> I am proud of Ondřej Kobza, a guy who started a project Piána na ulici  which places unused pianos in public places where everyone play it and eventually the anymosity that unfortunately rules among people gets broken down slightly.

> I am proud that Alfons Mucha decided not to make commercial work anymore and with his painting abilities capture our history on gigantic pieces of art painted on sails.

> I am proud that Jakub Schikaneder. Just look at his painting, that melancholy, sentitivity and unique atmosphere of Prague in the 19th century breathing from his paintings are irreplacable.

> I am proud of Otto Wichterle, thanks to whom people wear contact lenses instead of glasses.

> I am proud that when listing the Czech people that I am proud of I can go on for a very long time.

But hang on...were they even Czech?

 Some one them were born at a time, when we were still a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. 

Some of them were born in Czechoslovakia. 

Even I was born in a country that was called Czechoslovakia.

Do artificial borders set by authorities create who we are as a nation and are supposed to feel for, share, connect with and relate to?