As noted, being in the middle of a city ennervated according to appearances is a bit contrary to purposes, but one manages. Part of my distance comes from the fact that the mechanism of the political action here, the social tying-together based on the things everyone knows to be true, the sense that 'we're all in this together' is, in my experience a mechanism of corruption in my home country, especially in the Midwest. And the universities stateside, outside the technology-based areas, have become a bit corrupt and politically craven. So while this might very well be a valid local mechanism (the notion of 'academic citizen' is foreign to the US), I am keeping at some remove from things.
Whatever the merits and necessity of this action within the world of appearances, the world of appearances is precisely the mechanism that I've been fighting against for some time now. Within the appearance, somewhere, in every instance, is the thing itself. And only then do you reach the useful thing.
Patronal feast of the home archdiocese and cathedral. Ancient monastic teetotaler, somewhere to be found within the festival of freely-flowing beer and music.