4s, 3s, 2s, and You

Fort De Soto Park, Tierra Verde, Florida, October 2022.

(Originally published in 2013, revised in 2017 and 2022) You may have heard that things happen in 3s. I can’t remember the first time I heard it, I wouldn’t remember if it was when I was 3, I don’t think I would have cared if I was younger than 9 and I am sure that I first understood it all when I was much younger than 27, 3, 3 times 3 and 3 times 3 times 3, respectively. Yet again three events occurred this past month that don’t have anything to do with each other, statistically or otherwise, and it still entered my mind that well, things happen in 3s.

Some quick research, if you want to call it that, reveals that there is a paradox to 3s. The superstition that tragedies occur in 3s goes back to mid-evil times and is separately and independently traceable to multiple continents and disparate cultures. If something of value was accidentally dropped and broken, legend has it that two other items would customarily be dropped and broken to ensure no loss of further items of value. I don’t know if the sales guideline of “equal or lesser value” applied. There are numerous historical anecdotes of 3s, pick a starting point of the first occurrence, identify two more, and that’s 3.

There is a writer’s rule the virtues 3s, from Latin "Omne trium perfectum", things that come in threes are perfect. I haven’t completed my 3rd book yet, though my editors and the modern computerized grammar tools that I use sometimes correct 3s that are often too (not 2) verbose. Do I have a “favorite”? No. Though some of the international standards of my profession require the regular use of “adequacy, suitability, and effectiveness”!

Many flags are (or are predominantly) 3 colors. Old Glory and the Union Jack are, of course, red, white and blue. There are (or were) 3 bears, 3 stooges, 3 little pigs, and let’s not forget the three Charlie’s Angels (I was a teenager once). Other 3s? Breakfast, lunch, and dinner. High, medium, and low. Yesterday, today, and tomorrow, or past, present, and future. Sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Ready, set, go. Ready, aim, and fire (or ready, fire, and aim these days). Many television game shows match 3 contestants. First, second, and third place are common measurements of competitions. Monte Hall’s three doors on Let’s Make a Deal that inspired a Jimmy Buffet song and a conundrum that is evaluated in many statistics classes.

If you are a cook, there is likely a trinity involved in whatever you are cooking, onions/carrots/celery, onions/celery/bell peppers, and ginger/garlic/scallions to cite a few.

A scale of 3s can also be used to measure things. Instead of one, two, five, ten and so on weights, you can accurately measure with one, three, and six counts; measure five by putting a six on one side of the scale and a one on the other side; you actually need fewer weights.

Then there are many things that don’t come in 3s, and shouldn’t. Let's talk 2s. A pair of anything including shoes, gloves, pants (which might be singular) and glasses (2 lenses, singular object), salt and pepper, oil and vinegar, dynamic duos, mother and father, day and night, and of course, on and off. I should mention 1 and 0 if you are into computers. And it’s a duo for colors if we are discussing sports teams and schools.

Then there are many 4s: autumn, winter, spring, and summer, suits of cards, states (solid, liquid, gas, plasma), and addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Four more? four oceans, four score and seven years, four wheels on my car, and yes, my dog and cat have four legs and when they try to dance, two left feet. Some would argue that we don’t actually have four seasons in Florida, though I am not sure that hot and hotter counts as 1 or 2.

So things do come in 3s, but they also come in 2s, 4s, 5s, and so on, which at some point becomes irrelevant because multiples enter the equation, except for prime numbers that is, though I am not sure most of you really cares about things that come in 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, 31, 37, 41, 43, 47, 53, 59, 61, 67, 71, 73, 79, 83, 89, 97, 101, 103 and so on. Though primary numbers do have significant mathematical and scientific significance, I’ll avoid the urge to go into detail.

Then again, there wasn't a prime-numbered US President after Andrew Jackson (#7) that completed two terms in office until George W. Bush (#43), Johnny Cash sang about the Wreck of Old 97, and I guess somebody did care enough about 101 Dalmatians. What about Heinz's slogan of 57 varieties? It doesn’t support any point I am making, 57 isn't a prime number (3 x 19). There isn’t much else to say about 57, other than it is my age.

If there is any point to this, it is that this all doesn't mean much. Paradoxes are by definition seemingly absurd or self-contradictory statements. I think it is pointless to try to find meaning by connecting or bundling events, items, flavors, colors, or anything else into multiples.

That said, the most important number of any series is one (1), yes one. And if you have to ask, it is because there is ONLY ONE YOU. I hope that somebody out there thanks you for being the unique person that you are. And what amazes me most about this world is that no matter how many people there are in it, each and every one of us is unique.