Unless theadvancedapes is right and "old age" can be cured or curtailed, death as it stands is an inevitability but most of us seem to carry on as though it is not. Just a matter of degrees, right? There are some things I would do differently if I knew death was at hand, I ought to remedy such things now. I just watched Scorsese's documentary on George Harrison: "Satisfied and cheerful" sounds good to me. From the accounts I've read that is how George finally went out. if I knew the end was near I would hold my wife and daughter and not let go till the lights went out.But if I somehow did know the date, I'd certainly not squander the benefits knowing would give me, and do my best to meet my end satisfied and cheerful.
-George Harrison's widow talks of Harrison spending his life preparing for death through meditation. He wanted to be present for death and to be able to go peacefully toward it. She said that even when he was being stabbed in 1999, he attempted to prepare mentally and spiritually for death. That takes some major discipline to go in to a meditative state while being attacked. Luckily for George Olivia had no thoughts of meditation as she whacked the intruder with a golf club.