Ep. 202 - Eric Church's Six Strings of Life

KCP Crew Reacts to Eric Church’s “Six Strings of Life” UNC 2026 Commencement The KC Crew discuss graduation season and family updates, including a daughter graduating from the University of Minnesota, then do a “reaction video” to Eric Church’s 2026 University of North Carolina commencement speech. Church frames life like a six-string guitar, urging graduates to keep key “strings” in tune: faith, family, spouse/partner, ambition and resilience, community and belonging, and staying true to yourself amid social pressure, stressing that “the world does not need another cover song.” The hosts reflect on how the message applies beyond graduates, share tangents about music and community ties like reunions, and emphasize being honest about setbacks and failures as part of real life.

Transcript

SPEAKER_06 0:19

Welcome to the Kindness Chronicles, where once again we hope to inject the world with a dose of the Minnesota kindness that it desperately needs. Back in the uh studio, welcome, Steve. Welcome, Jeff. Hope you guys had a nice weekend. A little rain last night.

SPEAKER_03 0:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 0:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 0:36

A lot of nitrates on the grass.

SPEAKER_06 0:37

A lot of nitrates. You know, you gotta like that what you know, the the lightning uh somehow helps your grass. That's right.

SPEAKER_03 0:44

I learned that in chemistry when I was in uh I don't know. Nitrates. I just know that the lightning drops. Nitrogen. It nitrates some nitrogen. That's what people think that the It's very sciencey.

SPEAKER_06 0:55

Yeah, we're not gonna do science.

SPEAKER_03 0:56

It's like Newton's Apple. They could play the.

SPEAKER_06 0:58

Yeah, we're not gonna do science. But what we are gonna do is it is uh we're gonna do something a little different today. Um it is graduation season. Yes. And you know, the the social media has a way of uh capturing some of these commencement addresses and very famous people. You know, this this year Tom Brady did one at Georgetown University. I saw that there, you know, there's a there's a bunch of these going on. Hodakotby did one at Fordham University. Um that's a circuit. And your daughter graduated.

SPEAKER_05 1:32

Yes, she did. She graduated from the U of M. Congratulations, congratulations. Yeah. Um she it was uh Thursday afternoon. It was a long ceremony.

SPEAKER_06 1:42

Did you say is this a long graduation?

SPEAKER_05 1:44

It was long. But it was cool. I she you know the difference is that they they don't have a they don't have an announcer saying their name. The kids go up and speak into a microphone. That's I've never I've never seen it before. I've never seen that before either. Totally. But it was still special, still cool. She got to go in the mic and go, Lucinda Cleopa Brown. Oh Cleopa. Yeah, that's her middle name. Wow, where's that come from? Uh my my wife's grandmother's name. Oh, that's cool.

SPEAKER_03 2:11

Nice.

SPEAKER_05 2:12

But yeah, it was it was a big weekend for us for the her graduation was Thursday, and then we had a big party on Saturday. Oh, fun. So yeah, it was family, and we had some family from out of town here still with us, and my son Ben came home for Saturday as a surprise.

SPEAKER_02 2:26

What a good boy.

SPEAKER_05 2:27

Yeah, just a fun surprise. Saturday he's played, stayed one night, and he's back working on the trail today.

SPEAKER_06 2:33

Well, I had several people send me this particular commencement address. Yeah. One of them was my wife, and she said you have to listen to it. So my response was, Oh God, I don't want to listen to this. But then KG sent it to me, and a couple of other people sent it to me, and I thought, okay, I gotta listen to this thing. And you sent it to me, and I did. Well, I didn't watch it right away. I watched it, and it's one of the best commencement addresses, and I think that it really sends a message to people that uh regardless of whether you just graduated or if you're a person who's in their late 50s, it's a great message. So what I would like to do, you ever seeing on YouTube how they have those reaction videos? Yes. Like they'll have you know, the those two young black kids listen to Freebird for the first time. I can't stop watching those things because of that.

SPEAKER_05 3:24

I like to show my kids or my kids' friends songs they've never heard before. Like, what? Like, yeah, that's blues or whatever. Like, you know, that's some heavy metal or like Van Halen that never heard before. They're like, oh my god, that's you know, I love doing that.

SPEAKER_06 3:36

Whenever I travel somewhere with my daughter, she makes me we go back and forth. Like she I listen to her Noah Khan songs and and the new Mumford and Sons album and things that she listens to. There you go. But I make her listen to some stuff from the 80s, like Yacht Rock, not Yacht Rock, but like well, Toto. Like Toto isn't it? That's the center of Yacht Rock. Toto, the the harmonies, Boston, yeah, you know, some of those, and you know, she's a vocalist, so she loves hearing, you know, she's one of those people that I wish would have pursued music because she's got just an unbelievable voice. She was not. No, but she can just she can sing.

SPEAKER_03 4:15

My daughter's very Minneapolis sound, like limited warranty in the chats.

SPEAKER_06 4:20

So um a little bit of that. Uh Min Condition. I don't know if you guys are familiar with Min Condition. Pretty brown eyes, you send me swinging. Axel Henry, who's the chief of police for uh St. Paul, was a guy I was uh an RA with in Brady Hall. And he is he's now the chief of police of St. Paul. Okay. Great guy.

SPEAKER_05 4:41

And he was he was in Min Condition?

SPEAKER_06 4:43

No, but he introduced me to Min Condition because these guys went to St. Paul Central.

SPEAKER_05 4:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 4:47

And Axe was a St. Paul Central guy, so he knew these guys.

SPEAKER_05 4:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 4:51

Um, but yeah, I've played that for a while. Anyways, the whole point of this is um, you know, it's it's fun to sort of share your, you know. Oh, you think that's good music? Listen to this. Yeah. And then every once in a while I like to put something on like uh uh what's that song from uh breathe. Remember that song? Yeah. So corny. Uh Raise Your Hands to Heaven and Pray. Oh, he had three goods.

SPEAKER_03 5:16

Uh hands to you. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 5:18

They had a boy, Jeff. Limited warranty. We got to get the limited warranty. You know limited warranty guy.

SPEAKER_05 5:23

Uh yeah, Eric Newman. I think he lives in Hawaii now, but yeah, he had a band called Holiday Ranch, and we played with him a lot. I I really like that guy. He was really talented and uh still is. He still does music and stuff.

SPEAKER_06 5:34

Yeah, we'll have him on right after Yogi Bear's uh uh granddaughter. I'll find I'll find him. And then the drummer from Prince, Prince's drummer, yeah, Revolution. I know you're working on it. I'm holding my breath. Yeah, okay. So we're gonna do a reaction video.

SPEAKER_05 5:49

And and you gotta be the who is the commencement speaker?

SPEAKER_06 5:52

So the commencement speaker is Eric Church, country western singer, uh known for many things. He at the commencement is at the University of North Carolina. He himself is a tar heel, famous for canceling a uh he canceled a concert in Texas. In Texas. Yeah, to go to a game to go to the final four between North Carolina and Duke. Oh, yeah, that's a big rivalry. Oh, come on. I don't know. Oh, Steve. Oh my god. North Carolina and Duke, they're very close to each other. They hate each other. They do kind of hate each other. I took that from the video, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 6:30

I got that.

SPEAKER_06 6:31

So anyway.

SPEAKER_05 6:32

I love that. That's cool. I I did listen, and it's very thoughtful.

SPEAKER_06 6:34

I guess we'll Jeff did some pre-production as he does. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 6:38

So we're gonna kind of like Jeff's gonna play a bit, listen a little bit, and we're gonna talk about it. Yep. Yeah. Okay, I love it.

SPEAKER_00 6:43

Please join me in welcoming your 2026 commencement speaker, Eric Church.

SPEAKER_04 6:52

Get the sunglasses on. I want to start with a sound. You know this sound, it's a guitar that's out of tune, something that almost gets there, that tries, but doesn't. And some ancient, honest part of your brain knows it immediately. You don't need training to hear it. You just know. That sound is the sound of something beautiful that has not been that has not been tended to. 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. I believe your life runs on this principle. And I'm gonna break it down for you right now and tell you about your strengths, okay?

SPEAKER_01 7:55

Strength?

SPEAKER_06 7:56

Yeah, so Johnny Clueless, you guys are always in perfect tune, right?

SPEAKER_05 8:00

I'm I'm the culprit on stage all the time. First, let me just before we get into the the meat of what he's talking about. I had no idea he looks like Nate Burgazzi way more than I thought he would.

SPEAKER_01 8:10

Yeah, a little bit.

SPEAKER_05 8:11

He kind of sounds like he's got a southern accent like Nate has. Anyway, um, what a what a great setup. What a great analogy. At first, you're like, where is he gonna take this? Like, this poor guy's got a lot of people, but he is a pro and it's a really smart idea. Right. And I think at first I'm like, oh, this is kind of music-y, maybe only I'm gonna get this because it's uh those strings, those notes, those strings on that guitar is what I live, and I know every one of those notes. I could tune a guitar without without hearing a note, I couldn't.

SPEAKER_03 8:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 8:46

Oh my god, yeah. No, but it's uh it's a really brilliant idea. I like it.

SPEAKER_06 8:50

Do you know like which uh those strings, what letter is attached to them?

SPEAKER_05 8:54

Yes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 8:55

Okay, I d I don't know.

SPEAKER_05 8:56

I I mean it like he said, it's just a E A G B uh uh D anyway. Yeah, it's it's six strings. It's simple. It sounds like high E, low E.

SPEAKER_03 9:07

Yeah, high E. There's a D in there.

SPEAKER_05 9:09

Okay I have to tune them all the time. I restring my guitars all the time.

SPEAKER_06 9:13

Oh wow. Okay.

SPEAKER_05 9:14

So that's it's a really smart idea to begin with. Like foundational sex of pillars, six.

SPEAKER_03 9:22

That's perfect. All right. Should we go with string one? String one, all right.

SPEAKER_04 9:25

The low E. String one, the low E, that is your foundation. The low E is the thickest string, it is the heaviest. Every chord a guitar can make rests on this string being in tune. Your faith is the low E of your life. The thing at at that sits at the very bottom of you, your belief about what this life life is for, what you owe, what holds the universe together when science reaches the edge of its own explanation and shrugs. The people who tend to their faith in ordinary seasons do not come undone in extraordinary ones. They still hurt, they still sit in hospital waiting rooms asking unanswerable questions at three in the morning, but they have a foundation to return to. The world will try to untune this string through busyness, through slow accumulation of a full schedule, a full inbox, a full life. Listen to me. Tend to your faith. Not just when you're broken, but when you're whole. String two.

SPEAKER_06 10:38

Perfect. Tend to your E-string. Amen, brother. Catholic boys here tend to your faith.

SPEAKER_05 10:46

Yeah, and I would say even if it isn't dedicated to your religion, it's more about your belief in yourself and your that you're you have a higher power, like you're you're the depth of you. And you know what I've noticed.

SPEAKER_06 10:59

I've noticed a lot of babies crying in church lately, which to me is a great sign that there are young families that are bringing their kids, and to me, it's music. It's just it's so great to see young people coming to church with their little teeny kids. Yeah. Leno, Leno goes and sits in the crying room, and that kid is his is perfect.

SPEAKER_03 11:20

There is, yeah. Um, Eagle Brook I produced for them on the on one weekend a month, and this was my weekend, and it was great. Similar message just about how important faith was. So uh check that out online.

SPEAKER_06 11:32

Yeah, that's cool. String two.

SPEAKER_04 11:37

String two is family, okay? Look out at these bleachers, look around. Somewhere in that crowd is someone who has loved you longer than you've been easy to love.

SPEAKER_06 11:50

Great line.

SPEAKER_04 11:51

Yeah, it's true. Someone who saw you at your actual worst, not your public facing worst, and didn't leave you. Someone who worked a job they didn't love to put a book in your hands you sometimes didn't open. Someone who sat alone in a quiet house and cried the weekend you moved into dorms and wondered, have I done enough? That is family. And the A string is where the music starts to get warm. It gives a chord its body, its richness. It's the string that makes you feel like you're not alone in a room. I want to warn you about something. You're about to get busy in ways that feel important, and many are.

SPEAKER_06 12:40

This is great.

SPEAKER_04 12:40

Professionally ambitious, creatively alive, building the life you've been pointed toward for four years, and family, because they love you with the grace you will spend most of your life trying to deserve, will rarely demand your time. They'll tell you they understand, and they'll mean it. Do not take them up on it. Call your people. Not when there's news, not when there's nothing. Show up when it costs you something. Let them see you when things are hard. The A string is not a holiday string, it's an everyday string. Protect it.

SPEAKER_06 13:20

Call your mom. Call your dad.

SPEAKER_03 13:23

So true. Yeah. Just watching my daughter um graduate from nursing school and get uh into her profession and seeing the demands on her. It's uh she's great because she'll she'll text us. We we get calls from her um each evening she gets home from uh her shift or when when it's uh when it works. But it's really nice to hear from her. But you can tell it's a big adjustment going from school to professionalism.

SPEAKER_06 13:49

Well, and and isn't it just lovely? I mean, I think that we're all blessed to have children and families that we're that we're connected to. And you know, I love when the kids call and I love when they call about nothing at all, just to kind of check in. I love when I talk to my son Jack at Wildwood Tavern on the speaker phone and the crazy people get mad at me. Marty Rathman, are you telling me that that's the wrong thing to do? I'm gonna disagree with you. No, but all kidding aside, it it really is. But it's I mean, family works two directions.

SPEAKER_05 14:20

Yeah. It's it's it's a thing too where you have to. Kids are young kids don't want to always do stuff, and they have to they don't really understand how important it is to show up. And sometimes you have to you have to push them a little bit, and I have to do that sometimes.

SPEAKER_06 14:35

You know, I think they show up much more when they know it's gonna be an all-inclusive trip. Yes, they do. Uh huh. They do seem to show up when you invite them to dinner. Yeah, yeah. And do you think they've ever once picked up a check?

SPEAKER_05 14:48

Just once. Those dinosaur arms. They got those alligator arms. Yeah, alligator arms.

SPEAKER_06 14:54

Hopefully, someday they'll be feeding me soup when I'm in the nursing home.

SPEAKER_05 14:58

Um, listen listen to his uh analogy, this whole thing. I swear he said he was in the setup, he talked about he he was kind of running out of ideas on how coming up with an idea how to say I think he was looking at his guitar and went, oh. Uh the he's low E. Yeah, the low E is your foundation, and he started riffing on it, and it's great.

SPEAKER_06 15:18

Well, let's truth be told. At very at the very beginning, I thought, oh God, here we go. I know me too. I was like, how is he gonna do this?

SPEAKER_05 15:26

He's gonna bore people with guitar stuff that I love, but you know.

SPEAKER_06 15:30

And I'm not like a an A string, I don't get that stuff, but this really resonated with me.

SPEAKER_05 15:36

Yeah, okay, let's hear uh the D string.

SPEAKER_06 15:37

String three.

SPEAKER_04 15:39

The D string, the heart of a chord. On a guitar, the D string sits right at the heart of the instrument, in the middle of the low and high strings, giving the chord its body and its soul. Strike a full chord in a D string, it's what you feel in the center of your chest. That is not an accident. That is exactly what the right spouse and partner will do for your life. The person you choose to share your life with is the most important decision you will ever make outside of your faith. They will either amplify every other string you're playing or slowly pull the whole instrument into an out-of-tune mess. Not that I know that. I love you, honey. Great line. Find your best friend, someone you want to talk to at the end of a long day. Look for shared values over shared interest. You don't need to love the same food or music, you need the same compass, though it would be a benefit if you both hated NC State. Drive both crazy. That wasn't in the speech I added. I'm throwing it in there. Surprise he didn't. The right partner is the string that makes the whole chord ring fuller and warmer and truer than anything you could ever play alone. Choose them wisely and then love them fiercely.

SPEAKER_05 17:06

I like that line too. Um another thing I'm noticing, um, musicians don't want to get up and speak, but having that guitar on changes it. He's way more comfortable with a guitar.

SPEAKER_03 17:19

Oh, yeah, and it's such a great idea. Yeah. Yeah, because he can kind of pluck along. Great can context too to just to bring it bring the analogies together.

SPEAKER_05 17:27

That's he feels most comfortable. He performs every night, but speaking, that's a scary thing. But have a guitar, it's like your friend.

SPEAKER_03 17:33

It's like, okay, he can kind of just to add to his analogy when he played that wrong note. That's called dissonance. Dissonance. And cognitive dissonance when something doesn't feel right in your mind or when you're listening. I always think that those are great analogies, but uh yeah, he said it's a universal feeling. You know to know it's not right. So we're born with that that feeling of order. We want that order, and when something's out of order, that's what he's talking about.

SPEAKER_05 17:57

So and the D string being at the center, the heart of the instrument, and the heart of the, you know, being your spouse. That's cool.

SPEAKER_06 18:04

Yeah. I love the love them fiercely. Jack uh was the best man in uh Graham and Olivia's wedding, a wedding that I officiated uh last summer, and his speech, the kind of the centerpiece of the speech was find your people, love them hard.

SPEAKER_05 18:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 18:19

And I mean, that's really what in many cases what college is all about. It's an opportunity for you to find those people and you know, love them hard, or your church or your band. You know, I mean, very cool.

SPEAKER_03 18:30

What he said about values is so important to you need those shared values to get through the tough times. The G string. Oh.

SPEAKER_04 18:40

That's what it's called. Sorry. Yeah. I didn't name the damn thing. That's just what it is. The G string drifts faster than the others on a guitar. I can promise you that is true. I have dealt with it my whole life. It's because ambition and resilience both live on this string and they pull in opposite directions. I want you to want things. You should want things. The world has more than enough people standing at the edge of their own potential, waiting for a permission slip that was never going to arrive. Want the thing. Say it out loud. Build toward it with everything you have. And when you fail, and you will fail. Heminway wrote it plainly, right in the stern. I like this. The world breaks everyone. Afterward, the best of us are stronger at the broken places. I love that. Get back up, tune the string, keep playing.

SPEAKER_05 19:44

He's right. That's the G string is the one I break the most. Is that right? It's kind of at the heart of the strum, and it just it's thinner, so it gets hit. I don't know, it gets hammered on. Yeah, I try to break it all the time. But that's a great, I love that Hemingway line. Oh, it's so because that's that is the truth. And I've heard that before, but I I forgot about it. Like where your bone breaks when it when it when it heals, it's stronger than stronger than it was before. That's crazy, right? And what an analogy for life.

SPEAKER_06 20:09

And I do exactly. I mean, I think that the the message is don't be afraid to fail, don't be afraid to try things. We've been 201 episodes into uh you know not being fearful about a podcast failing because well, I it's seriously. I mean, I don't care how many people listen to it, um, I enjoy doing it, and you know, I've learned a lot through this whole process. And you know, some people make funny because oh, you got a podcast like everybody else, and it's like, well, not like everybody else. We're number two in the world when in the kindness space. I'm just throwing that out. You're on the kindness quest.

SPEAKER_03 20:47

We've got 201 episodes too. That's something to be proud of.

SPEAKER_04 20:50

Yeah, the B string is about community. Your generation faces a temptation no generation before has ever faced. The temptation to perform for everyone and belong to no one, to be globally visible and locally invisible, to have thousands of followers and no one knows actually where you live. Resist this. Plant yourself somewhere. Put down roots with the full intention of growing there. Learn the actual names, not usernames, of the people around you. Volunteer. Coach the team. Build the thing your community needs, even if the internet will never see it. Generosity. It's how you make it. And if you get lost, and at some point, I promise you, you will. You have a place you belong. Long now. Come back, walk through the quad on a fall day, or sit on Franklin Street on a game day. And remember, these are my people because I am a Tar Heel. My last tour, my last tour took me 42,185 miles over North America. And every single night, near and far, someone had on a Carolina flag, a Carolina hat, or a Carolina jersey. You will find yourselves, speaking from experience, high-fiving strangers wearing Carolina gear in faraway airports, or staying up across time zones to catch the moments, last moments of a game, or canceling a show in Texas, to be with your people in the final four as you vanquish Coach K. Lot of tire heel, you know, camaraderie here. Absolutely. You're welcome. And having the ultimate pride knowing that's the night my boys learn the Carolina fight song ends with Go to Hell, Duke. True. Carry this community with you as you plant your roots. It will reap a bountiful harvest and make your song richer and fuller.

SPEAKER_05 23:32

And finally, I like go you go ahead. I was just gonna say these kids need to hear this.

SPEAKER_03 23:56

We've talked about that before. Everybody wants to be famous, but no one wants to dig in. They're trying to maybe do it for the show of it.

SPEAKER_05 24:02

But uh I just think it's really great to hear someone who you know ha has become incredibly successful and is is actually in front of them saying, Coach that coach that team, go to volunteer, get involved, because that's really how you you know that's the that's the goal take uh bowling, you know bowling alone alone. It's the bowling alone message.

SPEAKER_06 24:24

And and to me, this r what radiates with me is high school class reunions. So we're having our 40th class reunions.

SPEAKER_05 24:33

We've been working on this for a while, right?

SPEAKER_06 24:34

Well, we just it's a group that's has kind of gotten together and you know, it's just it's a lovely group of people. But uh go to your class reunion. I mean, high school might not have been the greatest thing for you, but man, we have these kind of mini reunions, and when somebody new shows up that you haven't seen in a long time, it's so enjoyable that that those people feel like they're part of this community, and they should, because they are part of that community.

SPEAKER_05 25:03

I know. I like it too. I do like when the people the the the rarities, the people that don't normally come play. Oh, yeah. That's when otherwise it's a lot of the same people you maybe see your Facebook people, whatever, but it's always good to see people. But I like when like your freshman year uh you know uh locker partner was there. Like, what absolutely I want to hear what they're doing.

SPEAKER_06 25:21

I'm let me tell you about my freshman year locker partner, yeah, yeah. Mark Schrod. So Mark Schrod is this guy, he's now working I know the name. Uh Los Alamos uh he's he's like a phys physicist guy working at the uh you know down in New Mexico where all the people are disappearing. Anyways, he's still alive. So Schrod and I I think he's still alive. He can't he showed up, hadn't seen the guy in years, handsome devil. The ladies were very excited that Schroder showed up for this thing. But I'm serious, it was I don't care how it was for Mark Schroad, it was great for us to see him. Yeah, and it's great for us to see those people that you know they meant something to us once upon a time. Right.

SPEAKER_03 26:06

Does he know Bob Lazar?

SPEAKER_06 26:08

I you know what? I I will ask if he shows up.

SPEAKER_03 26:11

Bob Lazar was uh the S4 guy that um saw the US kind of studied the yeah, exactly. He's been on Joe Rogan later.

SPEAKER_06 26:18

Yeah, we should do an area fifty one. I don't know how we're gonna find con this kind of sitting there, but man, it'll be fun.

SPEAKER_05 26:23

I talked about this before too, but just another little quick note about uh um reunions. We had a grade school reunion, St. Jude's grade school reunion at the dugout. And as you would. I don't know what it is, but it was maybe 20 of us. But when you see someone that you've had, you know, your fundamental person that you your early development person, you were around all those people together, and to see them all as adults, it's it's something it's it's more joyful than uh even than high school unions, I think. It was really cool.

SPEAKER_06 26:51

Absolutely when we went to the uh the Hill Murray event a couple of weeks ago, yeah. Uh Gary Davis, who talked to Gary. I haven't seen Gary in 40 years. And he, you know, he went off to Notre Dame. What a great guy. Yeah, super great guy. John Duffy.

SPEAKER_05 27:05

I forgot about that guy.

SPEAKER_06 27:06

Haven't seen John Duffy in ages.

SPEAKER_05 27:09

Uh uh Mike uh John Faust, no. Dave Faust. Dave Faust, yeah. Yeah. But uh I told him about the podcast. He's he's probably listening now.

SPEAKER_06 27:18

I hope he is. Hey Dave. You know, and his wife, I mean, my God, Denise Waldock. Well, now she's Denise Faust. My wife is like, she's fun. I know she's a barrel of last. I forgot her.

SPEAKER_05 27:29

Yeah, I know her name.

SPEAKER_06 27:30

I don't remember the same class, right?

SPEAKER_05 27:32

In your class? Yep, she was class 86.

SPEAKER_06 27:34

Yep.

SPEAKER_05 27:34

They got married, okay.

SPEAKER_06 27:35

Joe Waldock uh is a guy that was a Modamida guy. It's uh Denise's brother. Got it. Um, but yeah, it's just the whole point of this, we're name dropping like crazy, but the whole point of it is you've got these communities. Lean into them, man. You know, I talk about masonry all the time, and there are guys that the centerpiece of their life is this masonry stuff because you know you're going to community. It's community. We need it. We need it. Our generation is. That's true. Go to church.

SPEAKER_04 28:11

The high E string. This is the thinnest string, it's the highest note, the one that carries the melody, that single line above the chord that everyone in this room recognizes and takes with them on the way home. It's also the one bent most easily by outside pressure. Social media is going to show you a thousand versions of a life that looks better than yours. The comparison will be relentless, curated, and a lie, dressed up in really good lighting. Someone's comments, someone's criticism, someone's cold opinion is gonna try to convince you to retune yourself to match what they think you should sound like. This is so good. Do not let them touch your strength. You were made uniquely, wonderfully, distinctly. There's a sound only you can make, a voice that has never existed before you and will never exist again. A contribution only you can bring, a way of seeing that belongs to only you. The world does not need another another cover song.

unknown 29:15

Amen.

SPEAKER_04 29:15

It needs an original.

unknown 29:16

Woo!

SPEAKER_04 29:17

Best line of the whole thing. Yeah, that's true, man. Six strings. Six strings of life and willingness to keep them in tune. Six principles, six pillars. When all six are in tune with each other, the chord your life makes is full and resonant and true. All six will drift, not one or two, all six, in their own time, in their own season. Your faith will go quiet when you need it loud. Your family will get complicated in a way only the people who love you most can complicate things. You will go through hard seasons with your spouse, your ambition will hollow out, and your resilience will wear thin. Your community will start to feel like an obligation, and your world will try to sand down the edges of exactly who you are. This is not failure. This is not weakness. It's the inevitable universal experience of living in an imperfect world that doesn't stop to let us tune up. And the difference between a life that sounds like music and a life that sounds like noise is whether you stop and listen. Whether you're honest enough to hear which string has drifted out of tune and humble enough to make the adjustment instead of just turning up the volume and hoping nobody notices. Because you will notice. The part of you that knows what the chord should sound like will always notice. It will not let you go. Life won't be right until it is tuned. Trust what your heart hears and is telling you about your song. So, graduates, now I encourage you to take your six strings, make it something worth hearing, and play your song as I leave you with mine. Oh.

SPEAKER_05 31:16

Nate Pergazzi's a good guitar player.

SPEAKER_03 31:24

This song is called Carolina.

SPEAKER_04 31:31

There's a cab on in a valley. My grandpa built on your land. And your mountains are a canvas for the makers.

SPEAKER_05 31:48

This is also the chorus that I wanna grow, by the way. Just so you know, what am I stuck?

SPEAKER_04 31:52

Oh, I know.

SPEAKER_05 31:52

It's your best your stuff.

SPEAKER_04 31:55

I'm fishing a river.

SPEAKER_03 31:57

Sounds great. If only fade it out if you guys want to talk over it at all, or should I keep it up? No, it's just the chorus.

SPEAKER_04 32:06

It's a great chorus. Such a long, long time. That's just a guy with a guitar, isn't that cool? I carry you. Your memory comes over me. Like a phone call from my baby. I miss you like crazy. You kinda like it, sound the list I wrong. Keep calling me home. Call on me home. Gotta get the lighter. I'm not doing that. Where's my lighter? Sometimes I grow weary. Staying on this.

SPEAKER_06 33:11

She's doing the guitar. She's playing the guitar. What do you what do you call that? The American Sign Language lady at Garner.

SPEAKER_03 33:17

That's right. Yeah. That's right. I saw that before she's signing it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 33:21

Just you know, it's it's graduation season. Yeah. And one of the things that um it used to irritate me about Facebook was trophy season, you know, like championship season. I want people to post pictures of the games that their kids lose at. Seriously. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 33:45

And what and for what reason?

SPEAKER_06 33:47

Explain. Yeah. And I think, you know, I appreciate the people that that post things. You know, Pam Anderson. Here's an example. Pam Anderson. Pamela Anderson. Pamela Anderson from Baby Watch. Have you seen her lately? Oh yeah. Yeah. She's just decided I'm gonna be me. I'm not gonna bow to that.

SPEAKER_05 34:06

She's just daring in in such a great real way. It's kind of cool.

SPEAKER_06 34:09

It's very cool.

SPEAKER_05 34:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 34:10

And she still gets dolled up.

SPEAKER_05 34:12

Her whole life was built on her looks. So she's really kind of doing kind of the reverse of that, going, This is the me. Everybody wake up or anything. Wake up, everybody. This is life.

SPEAKER_06 34:22

Facebook and and you know, social media has turned into a place for trophies and triumphs and trips. And you know, I might be related to a person that, you know, does a lot of what we call photojournalisming. She likes to my breakfast. Not she doesn't do that. Okay, there's a lot of it's exhausting, the pictures that are posted. And she says that people like to see it. You know, I like to post pictures of uh, you know, when a guy slips on the ice, for example. And and is in the and gets his car stolen. I'm serious. Those are the things that is me.

SPEAKER_03 35:01

You would put some his sense of humor in with it. There was one of Ben getting a uh a gift of uh pictures that that weren't his family.

SPEAKER_06 35:11

Yes. So funny you should bring that up. Ben moved into a big boy apartment this uh last weekend, and he had we had ordered these photographs, yeah, and we got the photographs, uh 16 of them, from this black family. Yeah. And we still wrapped them up, and Ben opened it up, and we were like, Benny, we wanted to introduce you to your real family. I mean, it was so well done. But again, that's real life. Yeah. You know, I remember I posted a picture of uh my wife climbing underneath the uh the the steering wheel of our car trying to figure out where the uh like she was checking for fuses. I didn't even know cars had fuses. What the point is hard, it's hard to find out. It's hard to find the point is let's see some of the failures.

SPEAKER_05 36:00

Let's be real. Well, kind of yes, and along those same lines, what I like about what Eric Church is saying, he's going, and you're gonna fail. You're gonna do it. Right. Life is messy, life is not as it doesn't all come easy. It's not Facebook. Life is that exactly what you're saying. These kids need to understand that they're not gonna get handed everything. And and it's it's my daughter with her last the last hurrah back to uh getting through school was it was hard. That last bit we had to really encourage she was like ah this last quarter. She's like, I don't know. We're like, just keep going. You gotta do it. And that is something kids need to kind of get we all need it, but I think young people like that the people who Eric Church is speaking to, they need to know that they're gonna fail. They're gonna get through it, but they're gonna have problems, and problems are what make you stronger, it's what makes it resilience. The the bone, the breaking of the bone is what makes you strong.

SPEAKER_06 36:51

The fourth string? Is that the fourth string? So I'm not go ahead, Jen.

SPEAKER_03 36:54

Living in day day tight compartments and just enjoying the the good with the bad and what comes with the um and I have a I have a related um piece of kindness news. Yeah, I wanted to show this a couple weeks ago, but there was a Pittsburgh Pirate Pirates game. Oh, yes, and um you were talking about siblings and your your uh your son coming home for your daughters. Yeah. Um so let me I don't know if you saw this, Steve, but this is just to me. Is this sports related?

SPEAKER_02 37:21

And that girl has it. Jake Mangum jersey on and wants to make sure he's daughter. Look at that. Oh, I love it. Oh, that's why you bring your glove, too. Oh, look at that. That's heartwarming.

SPEAKER_05 37:35

How do you know? That's awesome. Isn't that cool? She's so happy. I love that.

SPEAKER_03 37:42

Yeah, so it's catching the real moments, like you said.

SPEAKER_06 37:45

Here's an example. I'm going to a twins game tomorrow night with uh with Kevin KG and Mr. Gorg. Gorg and his gal, and and Becky and I, and we we go at least once a year, and Chrissy, I think, gets these seats from like her financial person. Anyway, they're right behind home plate. And I can't tell you, at every game, there have been line drives that have come back, and I if they got a picture of me doing it, I am diving out of the way or I'm putting Becky in front of me. Oh, yeah. There is no chivalry going on when there's a 120 mile an hour falling at you.

SPEAKER_05 38:23

Um get buy KG a big chocolate Sunday and see if he'll do the George Costan's. Holy he's George Castan's. Because you're gonna be on camera. You know, when you're behind all I actually fixate on people that are sitting behind bone plate because you've seen them over and over and over again. It's his life, like I've I totally watched it.

SPEAKER_06 38:42

We're in the second, we're in like the the first deck right in front of the uh what do you call it, the press box. Okay, so it's not right behind, but it's it's and I'll tell you what, every year there is a ball that comes flying back, and you don't realize how fast those damn balls are moving until it's coming right at you.

SPEAKER_03 39:00

You act like George Costanza when they had that fire in the party. Totally. You're two feet.

SPEAKER_05 39:06

Two Costanza references. That's perfect.

SPEAKER_06 39:11

Yeah. Well, you know, he was just clearing the way. Yeah. You think that was what, you know. Anyway. Well, I just again I think that uh, you know, next week we're gonna do our reaction to Free Bird when they played in Oakland. And uh that's we're just gonna start doing these reaction videos. Now you gotta watch the reaction video of these kids watching Free Bird for the first time.

SPEAKER_05 39:33

There's a few other ones that I love. I love it. I didn't see the Freebird one, but I love it. It's very cool.

SPEAKER_06 39:38

So this is our graduation uh congratulations to all those graduates, including my daughter.

SPEAKER_05 39:44

Congratulations. It's also my mom's birthday uh this week. So my mom's birthday.

SPEAKER_06 39:50

Ronnie's a pistol. She's flipping along. Is she about four foot seven? She's teeny. Yeah. She's over four, but not much. Over four.

SPEAKER_05 40:00

Yes, yes, that's good. Yeah, happy birthday. Happy birthday, mom. He's listening, brother. Graduation season. Go do it up. Enjoy. Love those people around you. Love them fiercely. Play those six strings, and off we go.