Three is the Perfect Number

A sub-chapter in my book is entitled, “The Three Fisted Drinker” and references my beverage addiction. I can’t resist ordering multiple drinks. Water quenches my thirst, caffeine from my iced tea keeps me awake and alert, and a glass of wine offers a little buzz I enjoy. This liquid combination of hydration, caffeination, and intoxication is the perfect liquid triumvirate.

 Naively, I assumed my idiosyncratic drink habit was mine alone. Apparently not, according to an Atlantic Monthly article I read entitled, “Always Have Three Beverages.” Author, Andrea Mull employs the universal “Rule of Three” to argue the importance of ordering three drinks. “The first is water. The second is a source of caffeine. The third is something fun – juice, soda, glass of wine. Small pleasures, like adding a fun drink to your retinue, have psychological value.

 It’s probably not a coincidence that three is an ordering sweet spot.  Research indicates that the human brain tends to sort and organize things into groupings of three. Three feels complete. Think the Holy Trinity, the Three Musketeers, or the three branches of government. Marketers rely on the Rule of Three in crafting catchy, memorable ads like “Snap, crackle, and pop”; “Stop, look, and listen”; even Timothy Leary’s 1960’s slogan, “Tune in, turn on, drop out” seems to employ this rule.

I really doubt that my sipping strategy is consciously rooted in this Rule of Three theory, but psychologically it really does make my dining-out order feel complete. And that is the focus of this edition of the Magenta. Achieving contentment and completeness in this wild aging journey of ours (even if one of my strategies encroaches on my dinner companion’s table space.)