Thursday, August 16, 2007

THINGS HAPPEN IN 3s

“And there are three that bear witness in earth, the spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.” (I John 5:8)

I’m not superstitious.  I don’t believe in any of that “Friday the thirteenth” stuff.  I don’t believe carrying around a rabbit’s foot is good luck.  I don’t believe bad things will happen if you walk under a ladder or break a mirror.  Even so, some of you MAY accuse me of being superstitious because I believe things happen in 3s.

Some of you who are my age or older and have lived for a long time in the Boston area will remember Dave Maynard who was the morning D.J. for many years on WBZ.  (Dave is still alive.  He’s retired, almost 80, and now legally blind.)  Dave used to ask various pop culture questions to callers.  A number of times I’ve heard him ask, “Do things happen in 3s?” and in fact, most people said “yes”.

A couple of weeks ago on a Friday evening there was a lot of excitement in the part of Framingham where I live.  (I live in what used to be called the “Lokerville” section of Framingham.  It’s near the intersection of  Concord and Hartford Sts. and roughly bounded by the Framingham District Courthouse on the west and the Natick town line on the east.)  On that recent Friday evening, a strange man flagged down a police officer who was driving along Concord Street.  As the story was reported in the newspaper, the man claimed there was a body near the Masonic lodge.  As soon as the cop got out of his squad car, the man pulled a knife and charged him.  The cop shot the man dead- less than half a mile south of my residence.

Five days later, a Framingham D.P.W. trash truck was picking up trash on Howe Street about a half mile east of my residence.  All the major Boston television news programs reported that a bag of trash exploded into flames as it was thrown onto the trash truck.  The subsequent response of the Framingham Fire and Police Departments produced the conclusion that the bag contained materials used in making the drug known as “meth”.  (I know what “meth” stands for, but I’m embarrassed to admit I can’t spell the longer word!).  The residence at 70 Howe Street was searched and the owner was arrested.

After that, I commented to my wife that since two “crime/excitement” incidents had each happened in our part of Framingham within a few days of each other, there would definitely be a third such incident coming very soon.   THERE WAS! Four days later, we had friends over for a Sunday afternoon cookout.  My friend Tim and I decided to take a walk around the neighborhood after our meal.  When we got to the corner of Harrison and Concord Streets we were shocked to see at least five Framingham Police squad cars with their emergency lights flashing, as well as a State Police squad car with its emergency lights flashing.  We quickly learned that a Framingham Motorcycle Police officer had been hit by a Honda minivan.   The officer had been injured and taken away by ambulance.  (We’ve since learned that his injuries are fairly serious.)  The Police had closed that section of Concord Street while they took measurements and investigated.  A news crew from WBZ-TV channel 4 shot some footage.  This particular incident happened only a QUARTER MILE from my residence, and yes, it was incident number 3.

As nutty as this will sound to some, God HAS programmed order into the Universe, and there is even some REMARKABLE MATHEMATICAL order that we mortals definitely do not understand.  Again, I hope you won’t call me superstitious, but things do happen in 3s.  


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree.  It has happened to me quite often and I am not superstitious either.

Anonymous said...

Craziness! methamphedamine is how i think it is spelled.