I was very interested in the part about death. I thought it was very intriguing how some elderly voluntarily die because of most people in the US try everything they can t live. This made me wonder if the people who voluntarily went out on impossible voyages believed in a higher power or if they just thought that death was inevitable and they should do it sooner rather than later.

This made me also think about all the elders who have passed away in my lifetime. I've noticed a pattern that once they all reached a certain age they were ready to die. It always scares me to think about but I haven't yet experienced the full life that they had.

• In New Guinea, people look up to elders for guidance, for example, there was this one woman who was the only living person that survived a devastating typhoon and they relied on her to teach them all she knew about survival. 
• The Huaorani people who reside in Ecuador believe that elderly shamans (mengatoi) have magical powers like shapeshifting.
• In America, we tend to let or elders to run our country whether it's in the Whitehouse or the supreme court.