The problem with article 50 of the Lisbon treaty is that it is not substantive in its content or conditions, and only concerns itself with procedural requirements.
The Czech Republic, severed from its old Slovak half, sits in apparent landlocked contentment, inside the European Union but outside the troubled Euro Zone, set into the new Continental mosaic like one of the small sturdy paving stones, just a few inches square, that form the sidewalks under the visitor's ambling feet.
I would probably have been very content as a scholar to have carried on organising exhibitions and writing books and teaching.