WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE

Country music singer Eric Church brought down the house on May 9th, with his incredibly thought-provoking speech summing up the “six strings of life” to graduates of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which has clearly struck a chord with the millions who have watched it online.

“Six strings: When all six are in tune, the chords they make can stop a conversation cold, carry a broken person through the worst night of their life, or make a room full of strangers feel for three minutes like they’ve known each other forever. But if even one is off, the whole chord unravels. Not gradually, not politely. The moment you strike it, you know,” Church said while strumming along on stage.

“I believe your life runs on this principle. And I’m going to break it down for you right now and tell you about your strings.”

For those of us who are guitarists, this truly struck a chord (sorry)… and a warm and happy one too.

Church spoke of the individual strings. The low E as your foundation, the A about how your family is an “everyday” note, and the D is about finding a spouse who amplifies your song. The G string (always an issue) about balance and resilience when the world goes sideways, the B string about putting down “real roots” in a digital world, and the high E – the thinnest string… that protects your unique melody. 

He spoke of how “It’s these ‘six strings of life and a willingness to keep them in tune’ that grads were urged to focus on — no matter what.”

It was an amazing commencement speech, and one I highly recommend you seek out.

Like all great words from other great humans, it got me thinking, and this metaphorical tone (sorry, again) can be used for many other parts of our lives. Here it will be about riding motorcycles – and thank you, Mr. Church, for your music AND your words.

The low E: This is what really holds your riding together. It is that core spirit that maybe lifted you onto a saddle when you were a child and pushed you to ride motorcycles as you became an adult and on.

That low E is for everything that brought you to riding and keeps you on the road.

The A string is for attitude. It is how you look at your riding, your machine, your two-wheel buddies, and how you present yourself to the rest of the world when walking with gear on, or on the road.

You work on your riding. You come to the motorcycle with the realization that you can always, always get better, and you strive to do this. Just like the rest of your life.

The D is easy – it’s for dress. There is a reason MotoGP racers wear full leathers and protective helmets. It is not just about protection for yourself, but for your family, which might have two outcomes of a bad incident. One where they are sorry this happened, but they’re so happy you are at the dinner table. The other outcome? You know what that could be. Buy real gear. Wear real gear.

The pesky G string. Like Eric’s talk, the G string is about the things that might, but will definitely, come your way. When we talked about this article, Shira quickly said “gravel.” Indeed. Gravel can be difficult, but with faith, skill, and knowing where you need to look, head towards, and get to - like the bad things in life - you will get through the gravel. 

Be it “very small rocks,” hard rain, breakdowns, or just gravity. Keep an eye on the G, but do not fret it. (OMG! So, sorry again. Really.) 

I’ll just say the B string is about the beauty that motorcycles and the people who ride them bring into our lives. It is said that in a car we watch a movie. On a motorcycle, we are part of the movie.

The heat, cold, sun, and rain are all part of a “Surround Sound” film. It has “Smellovision” too – just ride by a recently manured field and tell me I’m wrong. Revel in that, my friends. It is part of the magic that motorcycles are.

The high E is for everything above. As we know, it is the thinnest string. The easiest to break, and it will – usually at the worst time. But when tuned correctly, it is this skinny string that brings it all together – the melody, as Church said. We wonder if he rides?

All six strings of a motorcycle must be nurtured, taken care of, and, most importantly, work together and be in tune with each other.

You get that right, and you and your motorcycle are going to make some beautiful music together.