The first question

"Hi, I'm Maggie."

"Hey, I'm, ________."

"Where do you work?"

"What school did you go to/ are you going to?"

"Where are you from?"

"How old are your kids?"

These are the questions we ask upon first meeting someone. They range from culture to culture or with what you find meaningful about a person. They break the ice. They are where we find sameness. Often though, they are the questions we care least about -- the ones that are facts instead of the grit that makes a person. 

I ask these questions, but I have a favorite. 

"What's your favorite band?"

Instantly from your answer I have learned two things. Number 1, if you said you don't really like music, only the radio - I have learned we probably will struggle to relate and that I will do my best to persuade you into loving a certain band. This answer is rare though. Number 2, I learn what you value. Lyrics are telling, instrumental styles reflect personality. 

Blah, Blah, Blah right?

So other than evaluating people's personalities based off what they do and do not listen to and trying to persuade them in one direction or another - why ask someone's favorite band?

I'll tell you why.

I could tell you a million reasons why, but today just one.

There was a sweet girl who lived down the hall from me my senior year of college. She was a friend of a friend and always down for the ride. She has that air about her - the kind of person who seems to be part springtime - always a faint glow about them and they seem to see the world as blooming new, morning by morning.

That's Kim. She helped me through Science Concepts class. Through two years younger than me, she is definitely the wiser. Most nights Kim would tudor me in what I failed to learn that day in class. She had patience with me as I tried to understand the math within my homework. I am paper and pen, when it comes to numbers and logic - I pray. And God answers with people like Kim.

Besides Kim's sweetness, I remember asking her who her favorite band was.

Her answer was exactly what an audiophile hopes for.

I listened in rapture as she told the history, best songs, and reasoning behind her answer. She knew the ocean deep facts about her favorite band, and I was excited to learn about these people because I'd never heard of them. I knew from the certainty in her voice, and her long time love for this band - they were worth it.

Twenty One Pilots. That was Kim's answer and now with the popularity of "Blurryface," it is probably other people's answer, too. I'm not going to tell you to go listen to them, at this point you probably have. All I'd like to do I appreciate them for a moment.

Twenty One Pilots is known for their weird music video performances, Tyler's poetic, rhythmic verses and the fact that you cannot put their style in a box. Brilliant. 

Plus, they make you think. They urge you into places you'd usually be too distracted to go. Their lyrics are sugarless, but layered with the kind of truth most artists have forgotten. The truth that we're all scared, we're all trying -- and we need grace. I also get a sense that where I'm at is okay when I listen to their music. I don't have to be at a certain point or hold my breath or press pause until a certain amount of progress or a life event happens. When I hear songs like Trees, Car Radio, and Holding on to You - I'm in one place, with one thought - taking it all in.

That's what artistry is about. That is absolutely beautiful.

So thanks Kim, for answering the question. And thanks to the people who tell it like it is. You make the world something to stop at marvel at.

"Lean with it, rock with it

When we gonna stop with it?

Lyrics that mean nothing

We were gifted with thought

Is it time to move our feet

To an introspective beat

It ain't the speakers that bump hard

It's our hearts that make the beat"

Holding on to You, Twenty One Pilots.