Lifeguards monitored Hanauma Bay from atop Koko Head as the ocean alternately surged and receded. Photo by ANDREW GOMES | The Honolulu Advertiser
Source: Tsunami threat fades as waves forecast to top 8 feet never arrive

Did a quick check of my news feeds, and I’m grateful to hear that Russia and Japan escaped a tsunami tragedy too. The earthquake damage in Chile is bad enough, and we can now focus our help there.

I’m still thinking about our heroes. Ordinary ones who are first responders, all-night news reporters. No book deal, no social media contract, just hero Ho‘ohana. There is quite a difference between bravado foolishness which is selfish, and the quiet bravery of doing the right thing, and good things… like trying to go surfing while others work to clear the beaches, or trying to get the perfect photo for your collection as others evacuate elders onto buses.

These so-called “non-events” paint huge pictures of the day to day reality which keeps us civil and humane, and which we take for granted.

Some of the biggest hero stories happened when the television cameras, previously keeping all eyes focused on a possible capture of history in the making, returned us to “regularly scheduled programming” and that work of getting things back to normal began in earnest. There were heroes in hotels and other places holding down the fort, or camped out in nearby higher-ground parking lots, waiting for an all-clear and never having the opportunity to go back and wait things out with their own families. They knew that should the tsunami prove to be a “non event” people’s patience would quickly wear thin as they looked for something to eat in an open restaurant, or sought to otherwise save their own Saturday weekend routine.

A lot of tweeting stopped then too. Some could take well-earned naps, but for others, there was still a considerable amount of work to do bringing back normal for everyone else who demanded it, and didn’t understand, couldn’t empathize with any reason they would not get their life pampering conveniences. No time to tweet when dirty work beckons, and most wouldn’t consider that kind of tweet-reporting very interesting anyway.

Yesterday wasn’t a non event at all. It was huge.