Ash Wednesday declares to us that death is our destiny, after all. Ash Wednesday also does something else. With the bad news of our mortality on Ash Wednesday there is the promise of eternal life. Yes, we all fall down eventually. But we are all raised again, by the grace of God.
Death is unavoidable.
But on the other side of death is resurrection. We live, we die, and we are raised again to new life. We know this is true because we have God's Word on it. That Word became flesh in Jesus the Christ, who was born like one of us, lived, died, and was raised again. He did not avoid death or rationalize his way out of it.