Editorial - Issue Three: The Rule of Three [Grapeshot Magazine]

The number three has a certain touch of magic that makes it irresistibly enticing. Its shapely, sexy curves belie its potent coincidences. This pesky little number might even be the secret key to life.

Did you know that we can’t survive more than three minutes without air, three days without water, three weeks without food or three months without hope? Not to mention that fact that life itself has three stages: birth, life and death. We start out fresh-faced and rosy cheeked, then, before too long, life catches up and we’re bearing its burden. Then, all too soon, we’re oldies, yelping at fresh-faced, rosy-cheeked kiddiewinks to, “get off my lawn!”

Even the very bane of our existence – time – has three stages: past, present and future. Stories, fairy tales and memories all come with a beginning, middle and end. Goldilocks and the Three Bears. The Three Little Pigs. Even in Harry Potter, Harry, Hermione and Ron make up the ultimate threesome. Things seem to roll off the tongue and lodge in our brains more easily in threes. Sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll. Every Tom, Dick and Harry. Slip, slop, slap. Even Superman fights for ‘Truth, Justice and the American Way’. In baseball, it’s three strikes and you’re out. The pinnacle of sporting prowess: the hat trick. And who doesn’t love a cheeky game of Scissors, Paper, Rock?

The Christian God is triune. Roman leaders were a triumvirate. The Wiccan Law of Return holds that whatever energy or action you offer the world, whether good or bad, will return to you threefold. Now, that’s one helluva karma if you ask me! They say that good luck comes in threes. But then, if Grey’s Anatomy is to be believed, they say death does too. Back in 1959, the Big Bopper, Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens died in a place crash, spookily on February 3^rd. In the early 1970s, we lost Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison in a matter of months, all of whom were aged 27 – otherwise known as 3³. In 2009, it was Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett and Patrick Swayze. Creepy, huh?

I don’t think so. I think we humans find solace in patterns and expectations, and the number three is a perfectly convenient number, low enough for pure coincidence to be read too far into. But what is life without a little conspiracy? Not much fun at all.

So, in the spirit of all things three, we are ranting in triplicate. You can also be thankful that we’re tackling the pressing questions of contemporary society by asking, is three really a crowd? And, just to keep things interesting, we give you the perfect recipe for a grapeshot cocktail with just three ingredients – all of which are alcoholic.

But, I promise, there is oh so much more in our pages to get your mind running away from you. It’s well worth a read, from the beginning, through the middle and to the very end.