Three Cheers by Linda Cicoira

By Linda Cicoira

The guide to a happy life may have a lot to do with the number three.

According to the internet, three is considered the magic number because it is the smallest number needed to create a pattern, making it foundational for human memory, communication, and stability. It represents a complete set with a beginning, a middle, and an end. It also offers balance and is often linked to harmony and perfection.

An ancient Greek philosopher also considered three the “perfect number” for harmony, wisdom, and understanding. Yippee!

Three is the smallest number needed to break a tie. Revered across mathematics, science, and human culture, it serves as the foundation for some of the most basic geometric shapes, natural laws, and narrative storytelling.

In Christianity, threes are quite significant. Jonah was inside the belly of the fish for three days and three nights. Jesus answered Satan’s threefold temptations with three scriptural references. His ministry lasted three years. Peter denied Jesus three times, and Jesus affirmed his love three times. Of course, there is also the Holy Trinity: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Don’t count on rolling double threes for the win when playing backgammon. The probability of doing so with a standard six-sided set of dice is 1 in 36, or about 2.78 percent.

There were three years between my late husband and me, and three years between him and his brother. There were also three years between the births of his brother’s children and three years between his brother’s age and his wife’s age. They were married three years after we were. Three years after my mother died, my stepfather passed away. And we all know — or have heard — that death comes in threes.

When making a spontaneous purchase, consider how many hours you worked to pay for the item. Spending more than three hours’ worth of earnings might be considered a tad excessive. There’s that number again. The thought might curb one’s compulsion — or cause a happy, somewhat wealthy heart to buy three of each desired item.

These days, it seems to take three times as much money to put gas in one’s car or buy several boxes of my favorite cereal.

The universe has three dimensions: length, width, and depth. Protons and neutrons are each made of three fundamental particles called quarks. Our short-term memory is highly optimized to hold roughly three pieces of information at a time.

In fairy tales, three is a constant. For example, there are “The Three Little Pigs” and “Goldilocks and the Three Bears.”

Of course, we can’t forget the three passages of time: the past, the present, and the future. The three stages we experience are birth, life, and death. And then there are our three parts: mind, body, and soul.

Music is full of threes. Bob Marley and the Wailers had the song “Three Little Birds,” Tony Orlando and Dawn sang “Knock Three Times,” The Commodores recorded “Three Times a Lady,” and Blind Melon reminded us that “Three Is a Magic Number.”

Three represents the corners of a triangle, the somersaults in a triple, and the wheels on a tricycle.

There are also the Three Musketeers. And what’s behind the saying, “The third time’s the charm”? Of course, it’s the number three.