The Rule of Threes - Feb 5 2022

 

The Rule of Threes

Feb 5 2022

Things come in threes,

both the good and the bad.

I am a rational man

I scorn superstition,

but have to admit to a sigh of relief

when that third fateful thing

is finally done with.

All mercifully over,

the fire, the flood

the hundred year storm.

Not that I don't know

nature is indifferent.

That no one's exempt from misfortune.

And that we reap what we sow;

the fire left untended

the floodplain I ignored.

The weather report

that got it wrong.

The Bible, too, privileges threes.

Noah's sons and Israel's fathers,

Jonah's days

in the belly of the whale.

Even God is explained

in terms of 3.

Although creation took 7 days

there were 10 plagues

and 40 days of rain

fell on the ark.

Then 40 again,

years in the desert

wandering lost.

So a superstitious man could be excused

for picking whatever

as his magic number.

While a rational man

contents himself with three.

And what a satisfying number,

prime

symmetrical

balanced.

Not to mention small enough to be manageable.

So I've paid my dues

and now feel free.

And soon to come

3 good things;

I'm counting on it.

The number three does have this power over us. It's certainly evident in my writing, if you've been paying attention: there is something satisfyingly complete about a list of three, and I'm as susceptible to this as anyone.

I pride myself on my rationality. Still, I feel the power of three when bad things happen; can't help the feeling of relief, despite the hypocrisy.

In BC recently, the same unfortunate people were hit with an unprecedented heat wave and forest fire followed by a massive flood, and then a major winter storm that complicated any attempt to clean-up and recover. I've had my own bad luck; as, of course, have we all. But reading of this particular family's plight quickly put my misfortune into its proper perspective.

Of course, all these weather events are actually about climate change. But I didn’t want to write another hectoring poem with a Man vs Nature theme. I've written far too many of those. Nor one that became a vehicle for advocacy and activism: I generally dislike that sort of heavy-handed polemic in poetry.