With Recent Celebrity Deaths, We Try to Make Sense of the Loss
By Donna Porter, Yahoo! Contributor Network
Many Americans seem to hold the belief that celebrities die in threes, a topic that has resurfaced with the passings of Tim Russert and George Carlin–with bloggers speculating on who the third celebrity will be. Some believers of the superstition that “bad things happen in threes” note that the “celebrities die in threes” hex has been fulfilled, by listing lesser known celebrity figures. Is this morbid? Maybe not, as the meaning of three spans beyond celebrity deaths in defining our life and world.
Celebrities die in threes, early roots
Potentially there is more to the celebrities die in threes notion than superstition. Everything from the Bible to the Universe operates on order and numerical principals to varying degree. Some examples in Christianity include the Holy Trinity, the Three Wise Men and the Resurrection of Christ. As for the third-dimensional (3-D) realm, three means complete –from our day divided (morning, noon and night) to life defined by the past, present and future. And, three has both positive and negative meanings as well as practical references in numerology.
Do celebrities die in threes? According to the Threes.com website, the notion that celebrities die in threes is just one example by the author,Scott Anfield, citing the relevance of the number, even if it is superstition. Yet, Anfield’s theory, part of “The Book of Threes,” is a bit more lofty and useful. It attempts to “discover a unified field theory which explains all the phenomena in the Universe.” While it may fail in its mission just yet, the Threes.com website is a must read for anyone interested in the relevance of three, be it if celebrities die in threes or more scientific leanings. Some random examples and observations include: three states of matter, meanings of triangles and trigonometry, primary colors are three, the zodiac, and popular acronyms, among the many provided by Anfield. Near the end of the comprehensive list is a an observation: “Good and bad things happen in threes- celebrities die in threes.”
Another reason we believe celebrities die in threes Observing that celebrities die in threes is not necessarily a morbid attempt at a prediction, but a way to cope with the unexplainable-death. When a celebrity dies, it often stands out among all the meaningless input we take in daily. Therefore, not only is the celebrity and their talent variably missed, but we are reminded of our own mortality. Numbers, be it three or otherwise, provide order to unpredictable events.History is generous with examples where celebrities have died in threes per se, at least subjectively speaking, and many more where they have not. But given the relevance of the number three in life, like many myths, there is a grain of truth–and perhaps a bit more. Do you believe celebrities die in threes, or that other bad things happen in threes?
Source: Scott Anfield, “On The Nature of the Universe“
The Book of Threes Andrew Harris, “The Meaning of Three“
Further reading
Numbers and Their Meanings, crystallinks.com
Numbers and Their Meanings, crystallinks.com
