Miraculous

While reading this post at the blog Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science, I found this quote from Freeman Dyson:

Littlewood's Law of Miracles states that in the course of any normal person's life, miracles happen at a rate of roughly one per month. The proof of the law is simple. During the time that we are awake and actively engaged in living our lives, roughly for eight hours each day, we see and hear things happening at a rate of about one per second. So the total number of events that happen to us is about thirty thousand per day, or about a million per month. With few exceptions, these events are not miracles because they are insignificant. The chance of a miracle is about one per million events. Therefore we should expect about one miracle to happen, on the average, every month.

(link to quote)

This is an interesting theory. It seems to match my personal experience. It also gives me the idea for an interesting writing exercise.

Many fictional plots are melodramatic, but if the melodrama is not kept in check, the writing can become humourous (usually unintentionally). The ability to write an understated scene of melodramatic events can be a useful skill. Miracles, by their very nature, verge on the melodramatic. They elicit exaggerated emotion, and typically involve exaggerated characters and events.

So here's this week's challenge: Write a short scene depicting miraculous events, but understate them so much that they seem nearly commonplace.

Good luck.

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