"Where everything is possible miracles become commonplaces, but the familiar ceases to be self-evident"

When the boundaries of possibility are removed and anything can happen, the extraordinary loses its spark; miracles, once astonishing, blend into the background as ordinary occurrences. The implication is not just that rare events become normal, but that the entire frame for understanding our reality shifts. Surprises cease to surprise, and the miraculous becomes simply another part of everyday existence. This undermines the joy and awe that come from encountering the unexpected, as constant novelty dulls the senses rather than sharpening them.

At the same time, what’s most familiar, those things we assume, take for granted, or consider obvious, no longer carries the same clarity. When everything is up for grabs, certainty and self-evidence dissolve. What was once solid ground for reasoning erodes beneath our feet. In a world where all forms, rules, and expectations are equally possible, even the mundane starts to seem strange and questionable. The basic fabric of our shared reality, knit together by common experiences and dependable regularities, becomes loose and threadbare.

The suggestion goes deeper than routine versus novelty. Hoffer points to a psychological effect: the erosion of meaning itself. Miracles captivate us precisely because they are rare, exceptions to the ordinary. When exception becomes rule, value and significance evaporate. The world becomes unmoored from context, and as nothing is exceptional, nothing is mundane either. Meaning arises from contrast, the interplay between what is usual and what is unusual. Without distinction, perception grows numb, curiosity fades, and the search for understanding falters.

Ultimately, a reality where anything can happen denies people the foundational experiences that form identity and culture. Without the stable reference points of the familiar, neither awe nor understanding can thrive. It is in the tension between possibility and limitation that both wonder and wisdom are born.