Hank's video (responding)
Here are two Youtube videos of two brothers. One proposed the question, "what is your ultimate concern" the other replied. Just a heads up if you watch the video...they sort of talk about a lot of other things leading up to the excitement of "ultimate concerns", but all in all they are pretty decent videos.
What I took from the videos:
Just think for a minute: What would you die or kill for? Is there really something in your life that is that important? At what point in your life does something become that important? John has a child and at this point in his life his new baby is his ultimate concern...making sure that his needs are met. (Well that sounds familiar doesn't it; babies have needs too, they just can't satisfy them by themselves!!)
A response from the brother, Hank, proposes some interesting questions in response to the initial questions.
What are you concerned with at all, don't limit it to just the ultimate concern.
What I think is neat is how he explains how there are boundaries (visually I imagined a circle) of things you would die for, things you would fight for, things you care at all about, and finally things you just don't care about.
This then brings up that maybe something like maybe your own child is something you "would die for", but then the stranger-mom at Wal Mart has a child that is in the area of "things you don't care about". They are both babies but there is something different about your baby that makes it so much more important to you than the stranger's.
And for each person this will be different, so what is your ultimate concern? Or, what do you care about, or don't care about?
When these are defined in our own life we may start to realize our motivations and maybe even goals. We know from class that we all have physiological needs. Those are obviously of some concern to everyone, and they will be satisfied in much the same way. Then there are psychological needs and social needs and whatever our concerns in this world are will affect those needs.
Take the concern you thought of from above and apply that to a psychological or social need and how that would have an impact on our behavior in order to satisfy that need.
I really enjoyed reading this post and thinking about its content. The idea of everyone having an ultimate concern is intriguing. Also, I think that Hank in the video is absolutely right that there are different levels of concern.
I honestly don't know what my ultimate concern is. I will have to think about it and perhaps comment again once I come up with it. For now, this post made me think about a wonderful book series that I read: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Okay...SPOILER ALERT if you've been living under a rock and have no idea what this book series is about/you're the type of person who doesn't like to know anything about a book before reading it don't read on!
Alright, that should have given you enough time to stop reading if the above pertains to you. Anyways, in the first book Katniss takes her younger sister's place in the hunger games, a violent game of survival where children are selected and must fight to the death. From reading these three books, I know that Katniss's ultimate concern is the safety of her family and those she loves. I guess that Katniss is motivated by her high level of relatedness with her sister, becuase she feels so connected that she is willing to risk her life for her.
Again and again throughout the series Katniss acts out of her need for relatedness by forming bonds with others. Katniss is fiercely loyal and she protects those she loves. I love this series because Collins gives her characters such raw emotions. Now I will have to think about what each character's ultimate concerns would be and how that motivated them. Maybe I'll see the books in a whole new light!