IT might sound trite, but sometimes it does take something terrible to bring out the best in people.
The past 10 days have taught us nothing if not just that.
Tasmanians - supposedly skint and fed up with the island's alleged stagnation - donated (and continue to donate) everything they could in truckloads to those who have lost everything in the bushfires.
Some charity shops were so full they couldn't take any more donations. And those with probably the least to spare gave it anyway.
For a small island population that often feels forgotten or neglected, we suddenly found ourselves thrust into the national and international firelight.
On summer holidays at Boat Harbour, keeping a watchful eye on the Montumana fire, I didn't realise this until the texts starting rolling in.
One day they were from family interstate asking if we were OK; the next, from friends in the UK.
After an initial and very Tasmanian response in which I wanted to point out that the fires were (fortunately) hours rather than metres away from my home, because the island is not so small as most believe, I realised these catastrophic fires had gone global.
The UK's Guardian newspaper ran the photos taken by grandfather Tim Holmes of his wife and grandchildren cowering beneath a jetty at Dunalley as the fire raged behind them.
Comments posted by readers slated those who criticised Mr Holmes for taking pictures of this catastrophic event.
They praised him instead for his courage and his composure during a terrifying ordeal.
Others made points about global warming and what it was doing to the planet.
Also in the UK, even the local council of Windsor and Maidenhead is raising funds for those affected here, with a series of coffee mornings for Deputy Mayor Andrew Jenner's former home state.
(Perhaps her Majesty could pop in for a cuppa and chip in a quid or two when she's at Windsor Castle.)
Back at home, once houses and properties and pets and livestock and memories and dreams had gone up in smoke, there remains not wailing and `woe is me', but an incredible sense of stoicism and that never-say-die attitude that flares when we need it most.
Those interviewed on the news were not in floods of tears; they were not hysterical. Sure, most will be numb and heartbroken and it will take years to rebuild what they have lost.
But there is an inherent stubbornness to stand firm in the angry face of Mother Nature and the blow she has dealt them.
And they will do it with the help of their neighbours who are equally affected; fellow Tasmanians, even those who have not lost anything; with Australians who donate to the myriad fund-raisers; and with the international community who can find empathy for them, even if their own country is rarely affected by bushfire.
