The apocalyptic vocabulary was in full flow in the hours after the result of the Greek referendum - the country was hanging by a gossamer thread, there was a risk of financial contagion across Europe, the country's banks were on the point of running out of money, and so on.
And while all of those descriptions are fair to some extent, the phrase that best sums up the situation is considerably more calm and prosaic: the door to a deal is still open.
What will take Greece through that door, or propel it in another direction entirely (most likely, out of the Euro) depends on the Greek government and what proposals it can come up in the next few days -or hours. What is no longer a possibility is any more delay - cash withdrawals from banks are still limited and without some sign of longer-term funding emerging soon, the European Central Bank could pull the plug. That is the cold reality after the heated celebrations on the streets after the No vote.
On the German side, the mood appears dark, with the German vice-chancellor Sigmar Gabriel saying Greece had torn down the last bridges with the No vote. But a route across the stormy waters is still possible. In fact, in the days before the referendum, there was a realistic basis of a deal in the Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras's letter to his country's creditors, which pretty much accepted most of their proposals for reform including more spending cuts and tax rises and structural economic changes - it was also close on the issue of pensions. In other words, Greece had moved to a position that was not a far cry from what was being demanded by its creditors and that bridge that has not been torn down - yet.
What is a non-starter, thanks to the victory for the No side and Mr Tsipras, is the last bailout plan that was offer. In the build-up to the referendum, the leadership of the European Union kept suggesting it was a vote on membership of the project, but the Greek people clearly interpreted it another way. For them, it was a vote not against the euro but against further austerity, and that cannot be dismissed as mere wishful thinking. Austerity has not worked in Greece - indeed, in many ways it has made the situation worse, with the economy shrinking by a quarter in the past five years, and the referendum is a vote of confidence in Mr Tsipras's attempts to find an alternative. He has to come to an agreement with his creditors, but he now has a mandate to solve the problem in a different way.
Angela Merkel appears to be in no mood to accept this (and why would she when the mood among her own electorate is so anti-Greece?) but she and the other leaders of Europe must adjust to the consequences of the Greek vote and consider carefully whatever the country's government proposes. The fact that it will not be coming from the unconventional Yanis Varoufakis, who has now left the post of Greek finance minister, will help. He irritated and provoked the other finance ministers, although whether his replacement Euclid Tsakalotos will be an improvement remains to be seen as in many ways he is even more hard-left than Varoufakis.
Mr Tsakalotos's first act in the new job should be to re-engage quickly with Greece's creditors. Second, while negotiations continue, the European Central Bank should extend its funding to avert economic collapse while there is still hope of a negotiated settlement. To date, that settlement has been all stick and no carrot but that should change with Greece's debt rescheduled so that it can be paid back in a more realistic way.
Naturally, the debt relief will have to come with reforms to the Greek economy, on the size of the public sector for instance. But the focus of the debt relief should be on helping Greece to grow out of the crisis with measures designed to get the economy going again. A deal on that basis could prevent the current crisis escalating out of control, but more importantly it could help make the country's debt more sustainable in the long term - which would be good for Greece but good for the rest of Europe too.
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