If your neighbor has a completely different view on abortion gay marriage stem cell research all of those things you still are both Americans. Neither one of you is necessarily more patriotic than the other. Neither loves their country any more than the other one does.
I love painting and music of course. I don't know nearly as much about them as I know about poetry. I've certainly been influenced by fiction. I was overwhelmed by War and Peace when I read it and I didn't read it until I was in my late 20s.
