Power of Three

By now, I am sure a good number of you have read Steve Jobs' last words. (Can we stop for a second and fully take in the fact that Mona Simpson, author of Anywhere but Here, is Jobs' sister? Wow. Moving on...) Of course, we are fascinated with people's, especially the famous ones, last words. And while it was, I guess, nice to learn what his last words were, I was struck by something else.

He said one phrase said three times.

We like threes. Think about it.

Here are a few examples:
The father, the son, and the holy spirit.
Run DMC
TLC (Also CrazySexyCool)
Larry, Moe, and Curly.
Knock Three Times.
Three Men and a Baby.
The Charmed Ones.
Don't believe me, read this: The Rule of Three.

We say bad news comes in threes. We love three-day-weekends. Tricycles were awesome. Star Wars was better when it was a simple trilogy (Don't even try to make an argument for the new ones...don't even...).

So his last words got me thinking about threes. Two pieces came to mind.

Maya Angelou's Still I Rise. A snippet:

Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.

Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar. A line from it:
I took a deep breath and listened to the old brag of my heart. I am. I am. I am.

(I don't have The Bell Jar with me and Google tells me that it may be "the old bray" instead of "the old brag". I don't know.)

Oh wow, oh wow, oh wow.
I rise. I rise. I rise.
I am. I am. I am.

I don't know. There is something powerful there.

That's all I got.

I have nothing amazing to say about threes. Just that I am paying attention to it. I'll be thinking about threes as I enter Day 3 of NaNoWriMo. Who knows maybe some threes will make it in...