I WRITE THIS on Ash Wednesday of this year — the most somber day of the Christian church year: the day we face not only our sins, but the very fact of our death. For we are, as the Psalmist said, like grass: we’re here today, gone tomorrow. We receive ashes for penance for our sins, but also so we can “remember that are dust, and to dust shall return.” Dust and ashes. That’s our fate, without exception. We all go down to the grave and need each other at times of loss. As Roman Catholics ask, “pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.”