It comes in threes
I'm not sure whether it's just in Ireland or if it's a worldwide phenomenon, but bad look or tragedy is said to come in threes. Whenever something bad happens it can be commonplace to look for the second and third things that are bad too. However, when two bad or unfortunate things happen, us Irish are straight away on the look out for the third. It is a funny type of superstition, but it's certainly alive and well today in 21st century Ireland and perhaps other countries too - let me know in the comments below. These trios typically have to have a common theme too, so if the tragedy is a death for example, the other two will be deaths as well.
The reason that I am writing this post is that it is inspiration from the past week. Last Saturday I dropped my phone on the tiles in my kitchen and wouldn't you know, it fell straight on the front and the screen cracked all over making it unusable. After lots of phonecalls on my wife's phone, I managed to find someplace with a Samsung screen in town that could fix it that day and let me tell you that it wasn't cheap - 120 smackeroonies to be exact, that's right €120 for a new screen, daylight robbery my friends, in fact it wouldn't have been all that more expensive to buy a new phone, but I don't like the modern disposable world we live in nowadays, so I said nope, I'll just shell out and get a new screen. The fella in the shop turns to me and asks:
"Do you want to buy a screen protector as well"
No says I, I have one at home. Well, you probably know by now where this story is heading. I did indeed have a screen protector at home, but I couldn't find it when I got in, so I went without for a few days and a few days turned into a week and then today, my phone with the brand new shiny screen had its first fall since being replaced. Now, I reckon the previous phone had anywhere up to 100 slips, falls, dings and bumps and it survived each and every one of them. Not this one however, on its virgin fall this morning, as I was sitting down to have breakfast, it slipped and hit the wooden frame at the bottom of my oak chair and you guessed it, smashed in about one hundred places.
WHAT
A
BALLACHE!!!!!
So, now I'm phoneless on my busiest day of the week, when I'm taking and receiving lots of calls about faults over the weekend and project work for the week ahead. The worst bit is that the phone still rings, I just can't answer the damn thing or see who's ringing for that matter. I can't check text messages, Whatsapp or email on it either. I wonder how many Whatsapps will be waiting for me by the time I get the screen fixed, I'm thinking at least 500.
So that's two
So that was two bad occurrences and I was a bit nervous to see what the third one would be, and in the end it was the remote for our TV Set top box, it too had one fall too many and a little bit of plastic from where the batteries are held broke away, and the batteries can no longer make a connection. I will try to Mcguyver a solution to that one shortly - wish me luck :)
Sure, it's annoying and until I fix it or buy a new remote control, we will have rely on Netflix and Youtube for our viewing pleasure, but at least it wasn't a laptop or my wife's phone. Now the trio has happened, so I can happily get on with my life. The thing is I'm not even superstitious per say, but this one is just in built into lots of Irish people.
Interesting article
I did a bit of reading online and found an interesting here which I'll include some excerpts from below:
"The tendency to want to hold on to the three connection is strong in many areas of life. Why? One reason might be a sort of number mysticism. Three is the first odd prime number, the triangle is a stable shape, in our base 10 system, the fraction 1/3 is .3333333…, et cetera."
"A second more compelling reason might be psychological, perhaps deriving from the structure and limited complexity of our brains. The appeal of the trinity in Christianity and other religions, the philosophical triad of thesis, antithesis and synthesis, and even the setup of many jokes seem to stem in part from a natural resonance with the number three. (A priest, a minister and a rabbi go into a bar and ..., or a physicist, an engineer and a mathematician are asked how to)"
"A related third reason might be the fact that people are naturally pattern-seeking, and searching for and labeling triads, even if pointless, can give people a sense of control as only mumbo-jumbo, hocus-pocus, and flapdoodle can. Michael Eck's Web page, The Book of Threes, is replete with countless examples of the ubiquity of threeness."
So there you have it and I'll leave you with a song, the De La Soul version, or the best version in my opinion:
That's it from me. Thanks for stopping by
The photos used throughout this post are all my own taken on my Samsung smart phone and are unedited
Hmm. Interesting story but I can't say anything about this three theory in my life and my work with all techniques almost all days we get in situations when something broke up or other things happens.
Hi @neolife, yes I agree on the face of it, it does sound silly and superstitious, but some things are just engrained..
Thanks for stopping by and reading.
It’s funny I never really had thought of it myself but my wife is a big believer in this stuff! She’s not superstitious herself but definitely believes in the three disasters thing.
Really shitty about your phone man, I keep mine in a life proof case. Just make sure to clean it very well before you put it in there and you’ll be fine! I haven’t taken the case off in a year I think lol. Not completely perfect but it helps and saves many a fall!
Hopefully I don’t start dropping my phone now hahaha
Ya it's a weird one, even people that are not superstitious seem to go in for this one. I couldn't believe it though, 2 screens in 2 weeks. I'd gone my whole life up to that point without breaking a phone screen. What are the chances, I'll definitely be getting the best of the best of screen protectors this time... Fool me once....