I honestly don't know what I would do, and I've thought about it. I'd like to think that if I were in a situation where I was sure my life were threatened, I could kill to preserve it. I won't know for sure until I get into that situation, and I hope I never do.

I was 17 when my mother and I came home to find my dad dead on the kitchen floor. Despite years of CPR training in water safety courses, I stood there frozen in shock, stuck in a slow-motion world while my brain fired conflicting thoughts too quicly for me to latch onto even one of them. It turned out that it wouldn't have mattered, but that lag time Coyote Breath talked about could have caused his death, or at least prevented the rest of his life. I've since been in situations where I have not "frozen," but I'm always aware it's possible and I must overcome it.