It's not all that long ago that what many of us call "survival" skills were simply "life" skills.

And really, it's the things that we pick up along the way that we can transfer into other situations that are going to be the most useful. Kitchen knife skills translate to using a knife in the field...you might not be julienning anything, but you need to remember to keep the part that could harm you away from parts of your body that could get harmed.

How do we define then what a "survival" situation is? Any situation, of varying degrees that one does not expect to encounter? I didn't expect to honk off that guy driving to work this morning, but I avoided/diffused his road rage by backing off a little, and letting him go on his way. Aggressive animals usually respond to aggression with more aggression. For all I know, that guy might have been pulling out a gun, just looking for an excuse to release some frustration...but I will never know for sure. I survived that situation because of the skills I've learned as a driver, a teacher, a martial artist and a person.

Could survival be as simple as "making it through still breathing with most of your body parts attached"?

And as I've said before, there is a difference between surviving and surviving comfortably...I choose the latter...so I keep starting up the firebowl with the MagFire, so when it's cold, rainy and nasty out, and that fire could be the difference between still breathing and not still breathing, I'll have practiced my skills to perfection.