The Rule of Three

As of now, everyone knows about the deaths of three icons this past week: Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, and Michael Jackson. The death of these three icons brings to light once again what is known by many as The Rule of Three. Namely, that things always happen in threes. When you think about it, however, there are many things that seam to lend credence to this theory. Not just in occurrences, but in the way humans function. A letter consists of three parts: Opening, Body, and Closing. Most good jokes function the same way: Setup, Reinforcement, and Punch-line. Goldilocks encountered three bears, Snow White had three visits from here evil step mother, Jack climbed the beanstalk three times. Three is everywhere.

Three is not limited to writing, however. In photography, the rule of thirds is taught for lining up a shot. If a series of movies is being made, it is most common to make a trilogy. On top of that one, the third movie is almost always considered a bad compared to the first to. In music, the third album is supposed to be the most difficult to make. It almost makes it seem that three is some kind of special number.

All of this makes you wonder, what does the rule of three have in store for us next? Three more celebrity deaths (don't want to sound bad, but I can think of two off the top of my head that wouldn't surprise me)? Maybe three bits of good luck sprinkled together. Who knows what it will be or when it will come.

Of course, the most telling example of the rule the three: The answer to life, the universe, and everything (three parts there) is 42. Not only is 42 a multiple of three, but it's the two numbers surrounding 3.