The 3rd is on 3's

Someone, a rather special someone, asked me what my thing is with threes. Now, if you were to ask me my favorite number, I would say four, but I (both subconsciously and consciously) tend to do things in threes. Three points, Three M's on the name of the blog, and so on. Like right there. I answered him, but I don't feel the answer was sufficient.

The number three has a built in balance. The central point flanked by the other two. Evens, while still technically balanced, do not have this pivot point, and thereby lack the balanced feel. Photography especially takes advantage of this in the rule of thirds. While not all photographers follow this, many strive to have a set of three objects in their photographs: three trees, three people, three beams of light. Arrangements also tend to follow threes. The half hour of Mamma Mia that I watched once was completely full of 3 groups. Noticed three, ironically. Main girl's necklace had three stars, there were three groups of three people, and people kept popping up on the screen in threes. Anyway, this balance is somewhat true for all odds, however with 1, it lacks the effect of having repetition, and 5 is

usually a bit too much.

There are also an abundance of threes in nature (we're going to skip over religion completely on this conversation, by the way). Three perceived dimensions, three primary atomic particles, three "normal" states of matter (yes, there are more than three, plasma and supersolids jump to mind, and glass might be considered a separate state technically, I'm not sure on that), and there are more if you care to look for them. I don't, and I feel I've made my point with just these three. See? I didn't even intend for that one.

This third and final point is the (in my twisted brain) psychology of the third. One point, you might just be lucky. Two points, and you know a bit, but it's still iffy. Three, you come across as knowing what you know and being confident about it. Four is just a bit too much, and five is just showing off. Of course, from time to time overkill on points is needed, such as the situation where you need to completely overwhelm a thought someone has that is completely wrong and immediately harmful. Such as the hypothetical "You're looking for someone else, aren't you?" conversation or the "I'm going to jump, don't try to stop me" talk. Then, the more reasons the merrier.

And now it is irking me that this is five paragraphs rather than three. However, grade school pounded it into my head that you HAVE to have an opening and conclusion when you write an organized paper. Paper, this is not, but it's too organized and structured to leave as it was. Plus it was an even number, and you already read what I think about evens.