We have seen Thais come together so many times, but never like that.
We have seen all Thais unite as one to aid victims of Typhoon Gay. Every person practically burst with pride when the late King Bhumibol revived the Royal Barge Procession for the Rattanakosin bicentennial. The tsunami devastated every citizen.
But nothing, and we emphasise nothing, in memory or in history books touched each Thai so viscerally as the events of Thursday which combined the despair of that final farewell with the celebration of the greatest Thai life of all of our times.
Without a shred of coercion, everyone felt a need to participate. Overseas, Thais watched live on YouTube channels, including Thai embassies worldwide, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. So did two Thais in Colorado, according to their mother.
The farewell to the great King of five generations was unforgettable because of the man, and memorable because of a spectacular series of ceremonies that took a year to plan and a day to come off absolutely perfectly.
While the grieving will never end, the official mourning period ends at midnight. Flags will be hoisted to full staff at dawn, and bright clothing will begin to appear by official edict. Including yellow shirts and red shirts.
Arguably, at midnight tonight every given reason for the military coup also expires. These few days were not, as the Reuters news agency timorously put it, "a step towards the military government's promised revival of politics and an election next year". It was the army's four-day end game.
Starting tonight, the army and its military regime will never gain an additional supporter, whether it hands over power next month, next year or later. Beginning tomorrow, the number of critics will increase and then the volume and number of opponents will grow.
The general prime minister seized power from a legal civilian establishment to stop the political battles and to restore Thai unity. Which is what happened last week. The justification now is paper-thin. Literally. "We have to complete the paperwork and then you can have your precious election."
Thais should continue to show national unity, disagreeing about many things in a civilised and reasonable manner. They should drop the three-letter words about lizards and 11-letter words about the occupation of an opponent's mother.
Rub a lamp, maybe?
In a completely different part of the world, a group called Third Way -- a thinktank, actually -- presented a progressive view of how things should work. "If only citizens listen to each other, they would quickly discover that a lot more things and issues unite them than divide them." Beyond the current polarised politics is a third path where almost everyone cannot just agree, but actually come together.
Well, gosh. A third way, a middle path. Why didn't someone think of this before? But in this far-off land that has absolutely nothing to do with Thailand, a brand new report said "Ha ha, very droll". Increasingly, Americans appear to rather enjoy being continually at odds with The Others.
The Pew Research Centre has tracked the feelings of Americans about the political divide for 23 years. It is unquestionable that the Us-Them gap is widening on just about every political and social issue. It is unquestionable that Americans themselves increasingly emphasise disagreement over agreement.
In 1994, of course, a strong majority of Americans thought society should discourage homosexuality with law enforcement. Today, about 40% of conservatives still do, but they are fighting 87% of progressives who think not. Should government really refuse to allow two people of the same gender to marry? It's a strongly divisive issue.
But what of things that do not divide? Americans still go to the political barricades to battle over them. It seems no matter how tiny the minority view, the louder they shout, the more attention the media gleefully gives to their issues.
The US media loves division, but these days the media that depends on squabbles, name-calling and filthy language is the political soapbox (temporarily suspended in the "T" country) and social media, and they are going strong in both places.
Americans could unite because of the issues that bind them, and then negotiate in a civilised way their disagreements. So could people in countries beginning with "T". Where the key word is "could".