Three Wise Men

Gaspar, Balthasar, and Melchior, the three Wise Men or Magi, visited the Christ child in Bethlehem bearing gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.  The three gifts had a spiritual meaning: gold as a symbol of kingship on earth, frankincense as a symbol of priestship, and myrrh (an embalming oil) as a symbol of death.  Sometimes this is described more generally as gold symbolizing virtue, frankincense symbolizing prayer, and myrrh symbolizing suffering.  All three are ordinary offerings given to a king.  It has been suggested also by scholars that the "gifts" were medicinal rather than precious material for tribute.  The three wise men were probably priests from Persia who traveled a long distance, perhaps 1,000 miles, on their pilgrimage to Bethlehem.      

from Threes, Chapter 4, “Threes in Religion and Mythology”

Three Free Days

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The Perfect Wave

A prescient and popular Alvin Toffler (1928—) talks about waves in his book The Third Wave, published in 1980, that describes the transition in developed countries from industrial societies, which he calls the "Second Wave," to information age "Third Wave" societies. Toffler is a social scientist, futurist, author and lecturer. He has been called the third most influential voice in business after Bill Gates and Peter Drucker.   

Toffler describes three types of societies based on the concept of waves. Each wave pushes older societies and cultures aside. The First Wave is the settled agricultural society that replaced nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyles. The Second Wave began in western Europe with the Industrial Revolution and spread quickly across much of the world. A Second Wave society includes the nuclear family, a factory-type education system and the corporation.

“In short one could move systematically through the entire code book of Second Wave civilization—from standardization to synchronization right on down to centralization, maximization, specialization, and concentration—and show, item by item, how the old ground rules that governed our daily lives and our social decision-making are in the process of being revolutionized as Third Wave civilization sweeps in.”

from Threes, Chapter 1, “The Wonder of Threes”

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The Significance of Abraham

Judaism, Christianity and Islam are each rooted in the life of Abraham.  For Jews, Abraham is a revered patriarch, referred to as Our Father Abraham, to whom God made several promises including one big one that guarantees Abraham would have numberless descendants and they would receive the land of Canaan, the "Promised Land.”  For Christians, Abraham is a spiritual forebear rather than a direct ancestor.  For example, Christian iconography depicts him as an early witness to the Trinity in the form of three "angels" who visited him.  In Christian belief, Abraham is a model of faith, and his intention to obey God by offering up his son Isaac is seen as a foreshadowing of God's sacrifice of his son Jesus.  In Islam, Ibrahim is considered to be the first Muslim and part of a line of prophets beginning with Adam.  Abraham is called Our Father Abraham as well as Ibrahim al-Hanif or Abraham the Monotheist.  Islam holds that it was Ishmael rather than Isaac whom Ibrahim was instructed to sacrifice.  

From Threes, Chapter 4, “Threes in Religion and Mythology”

“A Lover’s Complaint”

William Shakespeare (1564-1616), widely considered the greatest playwright, if not the greatest writer, of all time was a heavy user of threes in his plays.  He wrote poetry as well. 

In 1593 and 1594 when the theaters in London were closed because of Bubonic Plague, Shakespeare published two narrative poems, “Venus and Adonis” and “The Rape of Lucrece.”  A third narrative poem, “A Lover’s Complaint,” was published in the first edition of his sonnets in 1609.  One of those sonnets, number 104, celebrates the Three and beauty:           

To me, fair friend, you never can be old,

For as you were when first your eye I ey'd,
Such seems your beauty still. Three winters cold
Have from the forests shook three summer's pride,
Three beauteous springs to yellow autumns turn'd
In process of the seasons have I seen,
Three April perfumes in three hot Junes burn'd,
Since first I saw you fresh, which yet are green.
Ah, yet doth beauty, like a dial hand,
Steal from his figure, and no pace perceiv'd!
So your sweet hue, which methinks still doth stand,
Hath motion, and mine eye may be deceiv'd;
For fear of which, hear this, thou age unbred:
Ere you were born was beauty's summer dead. 

from Chapter 9, Threes, "Threes in Art and Popular Culture"

Thanks

To everyone who downloaded the Kindle version of Threes.  I appreciate it.  When you have chance, please let me know what you think about the book.  

If you have not yet downloaded, you can still do that at Amazon through tomorrow, Nov. 26.  It’s free. 

Steal This Book!

I invite you to take advantage of a great deal. 

My book, Threes: The Amazing Thread that Runs Through the Fabric of Ancient, Classical and Modern Society, can be downloaded free as a Kindle edition beginning Nov. 22 through Nov. 26. 

You can download Threes to a Kindle reader, and if you do not have a Kindle device you can download Kindle reader application software to a PC, Mac, iPad or other portable devices, including many smartphones.  Free!

The book is free, and the Kindle reader app is free. 

To make it easier, here’s a link.

OK.  You won’t be stealing this book even though Abbie Hoffman would smile at the remarkable turn of events in book publishing, but you can get the book free.  Oh, by the way, because of an Amazon program for Kindle downloads, I do make some money with each download just in case you were wondering.  So, it’s a win-win. 

If you’d prefer to read paper, you can buy the paperback edition at Amazon. 

The Wobbly Three-legged Stool

Even though workers are commemorated annually with a one-day break from labor (Labor Day), a more permanent break occurs at retirement.  Retirement from a life of work is still a relatively modern development.  Preparing for it financially and psychologically continues to challenge even the most careful planners.  According to the Social Security Administration, "the three major elements of your retirement portfolio are benefits from pensions, savings and investments, and Social Security benefits." 

The Social Security Administration expects the program to be unable to meet its financial obligations beginning in 2042.  Simply put, the number of people taking money out of the system in 2042 will be greater than the number of people putting money into it.  According to statistics released by the Social Security Administration, by 2031, there will be almost twice as many older Americans than there are today, rising from the current 37 million to 71 million over that period.  At present, the government's solution for addressing this imbalance is to increase the retirement age, thus delaying payouts to now younger workers on their eventual retirements.  

Gross Domestic Product

Those who know say the key to an improving economy is GDP growth. GDP growth can be attributed to three factors: a country’s openness to trade, consumer consumption that exceeds 60% of GDP and low and stable inflation.

“GDP is commonly used as an indicator of the economic health of a country, as well as to gauge a country's standard of living. Critics of using GDP as an economic measure say the statistic does not take into account the underground economy—transactions that are not reported to the government.” Some say GDP is not intended to gauge material well-being but rather serves as a measure of a nation's productivity, which is unrelated to well-being. 

GDP can be compared to GNP (Gross National Product) and GNI (Gross National Income). GDP measures production within a country’s borders; GNP measures production owned by the citizens of a country, and GNI equals GDP plus income received from the rest of the world minus payments to the rest of the world. United States switched to GDP measures from GNP in 1991.  

The Perfect Storm

Threes are popularized by events and episodes as well.  The idea of a perfect storm is a recurring theme that today helps to explain the combination of three elements that create a result far greater than each one has the potential to produce by itself or even when two are combined.  The Perfect Storm started as a depiction of a meteorological oddity.

As we await the arrival of the “Frankenstorm” that is about to pummel the Mid-Atlantic states, we can recall another similar scenario.  The powerful nor’easter of October 1991 that formed off the coast of Massachusetts became the antecedent for the currently popular term.  Eventually to be described in a best-selling book by journalist Sebastian Junger and then depicted in a movie, the storm perfected itself as warm air from a low-pressure system arriving from the southwest met cool, dry air generated by high-pressure to the north and tropical moisture provided by Hurricane Grace, which was dying out off the East Coast of the United States as it moved into the colder waters of the north Atlantic.  The three ingredients produced rain, strong winds and 100 foot waves in the ocean.   

Now we use “Perfect Storm” as a metaphor to describe situations that result from a combination of three ingredients in a potent mix.  We see the reference often.  

Water 

Combinations of atoms can create molecules.  The atomic chain lengthens from particles to atoms to molecules.  Water molecules formed in a combination of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom represented as H₂O contain three atoms total.  Water covers two-thirds of the earth’s surface.  The other surface is solid.  The whole thing is enveloped in gas.  Liquid, solid, gas.  Sea, land and air.  That’s our world.  Of all the water on the surface only 3% is fresh water.  Of that three per cent, 2% is locked up in ice and 1% flows freely as streams and rivers and creates ponds and lakes.  There is a lot of water on our planet and not much anywhere else in the universe, we think.  These three atoms in their unique combination sustain all life.  

“Water is the strangest, most ubiquitous substance on earth.  Its solid form is less dense than its liquid form, which is why ice floats.  It can absorb large amounts of heat without changing very much, which is why coastal towns have moderate temperatures.  And, it has a ‘skin,’ a thin layer of molecules that try to stick together at the surface.

“Water’s unusual properties are the result of its shape….It looks like Mickey Mouse: the two hydrogen atoms are the ears, and the oxygen atom is the head.  Because electrons aren’t distributed evenly in the water molecule, the ears are positively charged and the head is negatively charged.  Since opposites attract, the ears of one molecule are attracted to the chin of another water molecule, forming a hydrogen bond.  In ice, water molecules bond together stably to form a tetrahedron, a four-sided pyramid.  But in liquid the structure of the water molecules is looser.  Hydrogen bonds are constantly breaking up and getting back together.  In fact, the average hydrogen bond lasts only a fraction of a second.”  Elsewhere on earth and perhaps nowhere else in our expanding universe are we concerned with life, life forms and living things, most of which require water in some form for sustenance.

Play Ball!

As we near the end of another season of Major League Baseball, we can pause to think about threes in baseball.  Of The Big Three professional sports in the U.S., baseball, football and basketball, baseball is loaded with threes.  Baseball is three strikes, three outs, nine innings, nine players, and three bases (the fourth is called home plate).  Baseball is scored in hits, runs and errors.  Batters are at the plate, on deck or in the hole.  Baseball is the quintessential natural threes in sport.  Baseball has the Triple Crown, which is awarded when one player in either the American League or the National League (or in some rare cases all of Major League Baseball) has the highest batting average, the most home runs and the most runs batted in during a single season.  Before Miguel Cabrera won the Triple Crown last week, Carl Yastremski was the last player to do it 45 years earlier while playing for the Boston Red Sox.  Only 14 players have achieved the feat.  Pitchers also have a triple crown for most wins, best earned run average and most strikeouts in a single season.  Winning the pitching Triple Crown has occurred more often.  Grover Cleveland Alexander did it three times.  

Three Types of Attitude

Anything, we are taught, can be accomplished with the right attitude.  Attitudes, though, come in varying degrees, particularly when they are part of a relationship with another person. 

There are three categories of human attitude, writes Meera Seshadri.  The first category includes those who have a ''You're right, I'm wrong'' attitude.  The second category has an ''I'm right, you're wrong'' attitude.  The third group believes in ''You're right, so am I.''

Those under "You're right, I'm wrong" category are generally subservient and agree easily with views of other people.  Those who belong to "I'm right, you're wrong" category are often vocal and vehement.  They often embark on 'sparring sessions' with everyone just to prove what they believe is universally true.   

Those who believe "You're right and so am I" are the most prudent, pragmatic and wise.  Though they are prepared to assimilate good points from other people (and even acknowledge another’s good qualities), they live life on self-dictated terms.  Being good listeners, they respect other viewpoints but finally do what they deem to be right.  They never take devious routes to attain success, nor do they pull someone down so they to climb the ladder.  They are so confident of themselves that they don't bother proving their skills and intelligence before others.   

The Third World

The term Third World arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned or neutral with either capitalism and NATO (which along with its allies represented the First World) or communism and the Soviet Union (which along with its allies represented the Second World). This definition provided a way of broadly categorizing the nations of the Earth into three groups based on social, political, and economic divisions. Although the term continues to be used to describe the poorest countries in the world, this usage is widely disparaged since the term no longer holds any verifiable meaning after the fall of the Soviet Union. While there is no identical contemporary replacement, common alternatives include developing world and Global South.  

Baseball

Baseball is quintessential threes.  It is three strikes, three outs, nine innings.  It is scored in hits, runs and errors.  A diamond has three bases (the fourth is home plate) and nine players.  Baseball is also one activity that’s consumed by averages.  There are batting averages, earned run averages, slugging percentages, on-base percentages, runs with runners in scoring position (an average), stolen base percentages and many more, including the obscure Mendoza Line named for shortstop Mario Mendoza whose lifetime batting average was .215, which is a modern demarcation between average and poor. 

But think about this.  Say, for instance, a baseball team has a record of 40 wins and 20 losses.  The team has played 60 games.  Commentators today say that team is playing 20 games above .500.  To play .500 baseball means you have won half and lost half, and in this instance that would result in a record of 30 wins and 30 losses.  In reality the team with 40 wins and 20 losses is playing only 10 games better than the .500 average (30 wins and 30 losses).   Do you agree or disagree?

Great News!

Threes the book is now available at Amazon for Kindle readers.

Storytelling

Have you ever wondered

• What the three little pigs, the three blind mice, Goldilocks and the three bears, the Three Musketeers, the three wise men and the Three Stooges have in common?

• Why the three-act structure is the dominant approach to screenwriting in Hollywood?

• Why three bullet points are more effective than two or four?

The Rule of Three works in stories due to the presence of the concise, memorable patterns that I mentioned above.  But even if that wasn’t the case, the number three has been used so widely throughout some of the most memorable works from our childhood, it’s likely that we are preconditioned to respond favorably to elements grouped in threes.

From Brian Clark, How to Use the “Rule of Three” to
Create Engaging Content at copyblogger.com/rule-of-three/

Art and Threes

Artists have used three subjects extensively in paintings with names such as “Three Coke Bottles” by Andy Warhol, “Three Trees in Autumn” by Claude Monet, “The Three Graces” by Rubens, “Adoration of the Trinity” by Albrecht Durer, “Abraham and the Three Angels”, “The Three Archangels,” “The Three Ages of Man,” “The Three Flags,” “The Three Umbrellas,” “Three Trout,” “Three Ducks,” “Three Spheres,” and “Three Sandwiches,” among others.  There are more on a long list. 

Renaissance artists became enamored of the application of mathematics to their art.  “Few famous painters in history have also been gifted mathematicians.  However, when we speak of a ‘Renaissance man,’ we mean a person who exemplifies the Renaissance ideal of wide-ranging culture and learning.  Accordingly, three of the best Renaissance painters, the Italians Piero della Francesca (ca. 1412-1492) and Leonardo da Vinci and the German Albrecht Durer, also made interesting contributions to mathematics.  Not surprisingly perhaps, the mathematical investigations of all three painters were related to the Golden Ratio,” wrote Mario Livio in his book The Golden Ratio.      

The Tipping Point has Threes

Malcolm Gladwell, author of the best-selling The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, contends the Tipping Point is determined by three factors.  The first, the Law of the Few, identifies three agents of change who are responsible for moving to and across The Tipping Point.  These change agents are connectors or those individuals who are skilled at networking; mavens or those to whom others go for information, and salesmen or those with charisma and personality to persuade others.  The second is the Stickiness Factor, which is determined by the content of the message and how it resonates in a society.  Gladwell’s third factor in reaching the Tipping Point is the Power of Context.  Context is a critical part of any communication that seeks to educate or persuade.  It relies on the local conditions and circumstances for its power.  There’s more in my book.     

Gross National Unhappiness

Three weeks ago I mentioned the three keys to happiness (see below).  Happiness is a subject I address in my book in several places, using in one of those the example of the country of Bhutan that inaugurated Gross National Happiness 40 years ago as a measure of the welfare of the country. 

This week U.S. Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke, acknowledged the grinding pressure of a weak recovery on the happiness of our own citizens when he said, “We should seek better and more-direct measurements of economic well-being.”  Further he said this is the “ultimate objective of our policy decisions.”  Persistently weak Gross Domestic Product and employment figures give new meaning to Bernanke’s “dismal science.”  As our chief economist he should pause to consider even more our gross national unhappiness. 

Take just a minute to check out Neil Pasricha's TEDxToronto talk on the "Three A's of Awesome."  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajKMkIXN1eg

Threes in Space

Threes define us in space.  Three dimensions shape our world.  Literally.  Height, width and depth.  If you extend those measures using Cartesian coordinates in three dimensions, you will produce the X, Y and Z axes.  On these you are able to plot any point in space.  Astronomers looking out into that space orient themselves to objects in the sky by using earthly references to latitude, longitude and azimuth.  Pilots know about roll, pitch and yaw.  Carpenters think in terms of plumb, level and square.  Or length, width and thickness.

Our understanding of three-dimensional space is thought to be learned unconciously during infancy and is closely related to hand-eye coordination.  The visual ability to perceive the world in three dimensions is called depth perception.

U.S. Navy Seals snipers use code for three dimensions when sighting in on a target.  “We used color codes for each side: white, front: black, rear: green the building’s own right; and red, the building’s left….The phonetic alphabet designated each floor: Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta….Windows were numbered left to right: one, two, three….If someone moved in the front left window, I’d report the window: White, Bravo, One.  Thus we cut down on needless chatter,” writes Howard Wasdin in Seal Team Six.

A new camera called the Lytro uses an underlying technique, “light-field photography,” to allow the viewer to change the focus to any layer from foreground to background in the field of view—after the photograph is taken!  The result is a photograph that’s less a slice of visual information than a cube from which you can choose whichever layer would make the most pleasing two-dimensional image for printing and framing.  Pretty cool.

Three Keys to Happiness

Randy Taran, who is founder and chief happiness officer of Project Happiness, writes about Three Keys to Lasting Happiness.  He says, “If you had to choose three keys to lasting happiness, what would they be?  For me, those keys are gratitude, connecting with others and giving.  It is not rocket science, although science has proven how these habits can make you live longer, enjoy better health and get more joy out of life.….Gratitude: A simple practice of writing down or otherwise reflecting on a few things you are grateful for has huge benefits.  Psychologists Robert Emmons and Michael McCullough have researched that gratitude is the ‘forgotten factor’ in happiness research.  The benefits of expressing gratitude range from improved physical health to improved mental alertness….Connection:  In our culture, there are all sorts of classic heroes—often loners who make their way despite all obstacles.  Yet, there is an underlying longing for connection that we all share at some level.  The Dalai Lama points out, ‘We human beings are social beings.  We come into the world as the result of others' actions.  We survive here in dependence on others.  Whether we like it or not, there is hardly a moment of our lives when we do not benefit from others' activities.  For this reason, it is hardly surprising that most of our happiness arises in the context of our relationships with others.’…Giving: here are many ways of giving; we can volunteer; we can be present for a conversation; we can give gifts to others.  We've all heard the expression that money cannot buy happiness.  Taking that a step further, a 2008 study showed that spending money on others leads to higher happiness levels than spending money on oneself.”

For more see www.huffingtonpost.com/randy-taran/the-key-to-happiness b 10004566.html (July 2011).

Pathways to Success with Exercise

Fulfill the 3 C’s: Comprehension, Commitment and Confidence.

• Comprehension—understand the reason why it is important for you to exercise on a regular basis by talking with a health care professional or by reading educational exercise materials.  This will provide a strong base for your commitment.

• Commitment—make a personal decision to place exercise as a priority in your day’s activities.  Make exercise a ritual.  Write time for exercise in your appointment book—in ink.

• Confidence—set small, reasonable goals.  Reward and praise yourself when reaching the steps that will lead you to your ultimate objective.  Don’t let small setbacks sabotage your long-term success.

Threes in the Arts

Threes appear frequently in the visual, written and performing arts.  Here’s a poem from Carl Sandburg.

“Threes” by Carl Sandburg (1878-1967) was written in 1922. 

I was a boy when I heard three red words
a thousand Frenchmen died in the streets
for: Liberty, Equality, Fraternity—I asked
why men die for words.

I was older; men with mustaches, sideburns,
lilacs, told me the high golden words are:
Mother, Home, and Heaven—other older men with
face decorations said: God, Duty, Immortality
—they sang these threes slow from deep lungs.

Years ticked off their say-so on the great clocks
of doom and damnation, soup, and nuts: meteors flashed
their say-so: and out of great Russia came three
dusky syllables workmen took guns and went out to die
for: Bread, Peace, Land.

And I met a marine of the U.S.A., a leatherneck with a girl on his knee
for a memory in ports circling the earth and he said: Tell me how to say
three things and I always get by—gimme a plate of ham and eggs--how
much—and—do you love me, kid? 

Why Threes?

Someone asked me recently how I became interested in threes.  I told him I was driving to my office one autumn morning in Pennsylvania many years ago, when I passed a white panel van that read Plumb, Level, Square on the side.  It was the name for a carpentry business, and I thought it was a good one because it captured the essence of quality workmanship.  It represented principles.  It was catchy and obviously memorable.  That chance encounter led me on a 20-year journey to observe and record categories or groups of three things, such as Plumb, Level, Square, then to organize what I had observed or read and written into some format that makes sense, entertains, yet calls on the coincidence, if not the magic, of threes in our lives.  The process has become an exploration of incredible variety and richness.  And it’s been fun.    

Threes speak

Here are a few common threes expressions.

Plumb, level, square

“Third time’s the charm”

Fat, dumb and happy

“Woulda, coulda, shoulda”

Father, son and holy ghost

Faith, hope and charity

“Friends, Romans, Countrymen”  

“Liberty, equality, fraternity”

“Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”

“preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States” 

“Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?”

“pretty good, not bad, I can’t complain”—John Prine from “Pretty Good”

“send lawyers, guns and money”—Warren Zevon from “Lawyers, Guns and Money”

“Exuberance, Raw Power and Punctuality”—This Is Spinal Tap

“The never ending battle for truth, Justice and the American way”

"faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound"—Superman

Swifter, higher, stronger

On your mark, get set, go

They create an appealing pattern and rhythm. 

What threes sayings do you know?

Innovators, Creators and Copycats

There are many good examples of threes in business and technology.  But I like this one a lot.  The late Apple CEO Steve Jobs talked about not bringing in the sales and marketing guys to run Apple because, he said, the company needed visionaries, who are those technical people who can be inspired to develop new products that drive the company.  New anything, including new products, are rarely created; they’re innovated.  Inventors create, which means they make something from nothing.  What keeps business growing is innovation that occurs when technical minds adapt an idea or product to a new use, a new market or a new application.  It’s innovation that drives business.  That’s what Jobs was so masterful at accomplishing.  He adapted Apple’s graphical user interface, its computer hardware expertise, and its ability to create supporting software to music to produce the iPod that changed the music industry.  Then he took iPod technology and produced the iPhone that changed telecommunications, and finally he came full circle in his wildly successful journey of innovation to produce the iPad, the smaller personal computer the world had been waiting for and wanted.  Only the iPad was better than anyone imagined it could be.  Steve Jobs was the ultimate innovator.  iPod, iPhone and iPad—his Big Three products after his return to the company he co-founded.  He possessed the unique vision that enabled technology innovation.  Everyone else is either a copycat or a creator, and there are few creators.  “He stood out in three ways—as a technologist, as a corporate leader and as somebody who was able to make people love what had previously been impersonal, functional gadgets,” wrote The Economist in a paean to his greatness following his death earlier this year.  What's your take on the Steve Jobs' legacy?  

Threes Form Patterns
I have been fascinated by threes for a long time.  The world is arranged, in part, by threes.  Often only three.  Not three or four or more.  We organize our thoughts by three ideas because three of them are easy to remember.  Three ideas form a pattern.  Sometimes those patterns are intangible.  Such as three laws.  Three rules of thumb.  Three principles.  Three classes.  Three categories.  Three ideas that support a point of view.  It’s uncanny.  Laws of nature contain three elements only.  Religions are full of threes.  We create commercial messages that are loaded with three selling features or benefits.  Sayings such as “fat, dumb and happy,” “this, that and the other thing,” “woulda, coulda, shoulda,” are ingrained in our culture.  Humor depends on threes—the set up, anticipation and the punch line.  Sometimes those patterns are tangible.  The modern traffic signal with its green, yellow and red lenses, each with meaning to motorists, bicyclists and pedestrians, fire in a predictable and never-changing order to signal proceed, slow down and stop when lighted in sequence.  Using threes to describe or unify is not a new idea; it’s been around a long time.   More to come.   What threes have you seen?