質問

If you were to meet <insert famous person's name here>, what would you ask him/her?

This situation has confronted me at multiple times in my life: posing questions to the President of the United States, posing questions to the President (and other General Authorities) of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, posing questions to the President of Brigham Young University, posing questions to the newest President of The University of Virginia, posing questions to big famous guys at NASA, posing questions to Makoto Hasebe.  

"Beer?"  "Of course not :)"
Makoto, today, at his facebook chat

Okay, so the Makoto Hasebe one never really happened; I only found out that he was answering questions on facebook after he already finished.  But the rest of the above situations really occurred.  

I'm not good with important people.  I get tongue-tied and my mind goes blank. 

Exhibit A: Meeting L. Tom Perry: He's one of the nicest men in the world and he came to a meeting at which I participated in the choir.  After the meeting, he came over to personally shake all the choir member's hands.  It was exciting.  After the meeting, I ran into a friend I hadn't seen in a while and stopped to chat with her.  She was standing in a line waiting to get the chance to shake Perry's hand and as we chatted the line gradually moved closer and closer until my friend was suddenly shaking his hand.  He turned to me to shake my hand and I blushed, "Oh!  But I already shook your hand!"  It wasn't meant to be, "I only shake famous people's hands once."  It was really meant to be, "Your hand will get tired from shaking so many hands.  I will give you a break."  But alas, I'm VA (verbally awkward) so it came off poorly.  

My friends have never stopped laughing about that encounter.  

 I could include many, many more such examples, all of them verbally awkward and not impressive.  

The first time that Homer Hickam met John F. Kennedy, it had the makings of a potentially awkward encounter.  The glamorous Kennedy in wild and backwoods West Virginia coming face to face with a kid about to win the National Science Fair sporting a bright orange suit.  But what could potentially have become a comedy act turned into a real conversation when Hickam asked Kennedy his thoughts on outer space.  (Meanwhile, my own meeting with Homer Hickam does belong in a comedy act - the irony of it all still makes me laugh)  

In some way, I think, I want my meetings with people to be meaningful.  An autograph, a picture, maybe a question or a comment.  That's all you get.  I don't like autographs.  What would I ever do with it once I got it?  Pictures are so impersonal.  (I once got my picture taken next to an Indy 500 pace car.  It was as special as the 500 people who went before me.)  And you still don't know what to do with it.   Somehow it seems the tokens we get from such encounters merely work as bragging stories for those who we really associate with.  But I want something more: an encounter where somehow people truly meet and see, person-to-person.  

But how can you express or get a glimpse of a person in a few moments?  Do famous people themselves ever feel misrepresented and misunderstood?  Do they ever scream that they want a person who sees them for themselves and not just as a tool to impress others at social events?  (You know, my friend the...)

Even those of us who aren't famous, don't we also sometimes feel misrepresented and misunderstood?  Can't people see beyond my exterior to find that I am a person with dreams and hopes and aspirations that cannot be grasped with mere formalities and polite conversation?

What questions can we ask to find the heart of a person?  Or is that something that words cannot reach?

Listening to this on repeat.  Seriously, amazing.