I've been reading what people have to say about this so called "rule of threes" that states death [and most things in life] happen in threes. It sounds convincing, right? You had Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, and Michael Jackson die within a day and a half of each other. But what about David Carradine, who died earlier in June and didn't appear to be a part of a set? And Billy Mays, who died on Sunday very close to the uber famous trio already mentioned? And what about other minor or local celebrities who may have died this week? Is there some sort of alternate criteria, an extra rule we're missing? Who qualifies to be a part of celebrity trio?
I threw this "rule of threes" idea out the window... But it got me to thinking about other "rules" or coincidences I had discovered or heard. With Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett dying on June 25, people began to notice this pattern of celebrities dying on the the 25th of a month. Left Eye in April 02, Bea Arthur in April 09, Aaliyah in August 01, James Brown and Eartha Kitt in December of 06 and 08 respectively. Weird right? Until you remember that not only have countless other people died on other days, but other celebrities, too. And this number of people is too small to really represent anything significant.
I have a Tupac theory, too. Tupac was killed in 1996. Every actor who has portrayed him or a Tupac-like character is also dead. Merlin Santana (Romeo from the Steve Harvey Show) played the Tupac character in Play'd, the hip hop cautionary tale that VH1 made. He was shot and killed in 2002. Lamont Bentley (Hakeem from Moesha - spell check is gonna have fun with those names...) played Tupac in the MC Hammer movie. He was killed in a car accident in 2005. This is pretty eerie, right? But then, I noticed that there were other similarities. All 3 were around the same age. Merlin and Lamont were both popular sitcom actors. All of them were killed in cars. Both of the movies in which Merlin and Lamont played the Tupac characters were on VH1. Merlin and Tupac were both shot. Merlin and Lamont were on Moesha. And on and on and on. There are too many other similarities to tie this just to Tupac. Plus... there are only 2 cases. Hardly conclusive.
This makes me think of some other coincidences... Like the fact that I share a birthday with Dame Dash and Niccolo Machiavelli and not only have I been called an asshole (Dame), but my name is Nicole (Niccolo). Also, I was born on the 3rd of May and I was 3rd on my line. Hell... my shoe size is 3 times 3... If you look at Nixon's full name you can find all the letters of the word "criminal." Well... look at Nicole Marie Williams. And my little brother, Jeremy Austin-Richard Hill. Are we paranoid, lying, criminals, too?
In general, I'm not a very superstitious person. I'm a bit of a conspiracy theorist and I'm little cynical, but I don't think there's any merit in anything I've mentioned here. These superstitions and coincidences serve to give us "control" of something we really can't control. Somehow we can explain losing someone we deem important if it was "supposed" to happen. Like... "Of course the greatest pop star of all time died. There had to be a third." Or "Duh, Farrah died. It was the 25th of the month."
Still... I'm going to have to be extra careful on the 25th of every month, especially around the time I'm 25 or if I ever happen to be in a car or if 2 people die one day. And I for damn sure am not going to ever portray Tupac or a tragic rapper who reps the West Siiiiide. =]
Comments
Post a Comment