To assert in the face of death, 'I have fulfilled myself, I can die,' certainly takes the sting out of that fateful final hour. But even more important, to know that one is doing all that one is equipped to do, to experience life as meaningful while one is still in the midst of it, may well take the sting out of death and liberate us from the fear that inhibits most people to strive toward self-actualization in the first place. There is no secret, no magic formula. A good old age doesn't come about from some special talent or as a secret gift. These activities can cover up the void of old age and keep people from coming to grips with the challenge of living beyond middle age.
Meaningless action can short-circuit the chance to discover a good age.
The presence of a long-term, conscious goal has helped me to maintain stability through the ubiquitous changes of over half a century. To me, the only conceivable answer is that I am here to play my infinitesmal role in evolution, an act inseparable from living but quite separable from volition. I don't trouble myself by asking the meaning of life because no one has yet come up with an answer that hasn't made me giggle. I knew that I could choose to live or choose to die, that I could give up or go on. So I chose life, even with all its limitations.