Whitney Houston believed that the children are our future. I’m not familiar with all her work, so it’s possible she also sang songs wondering where bears go to the loo or whether the pope is Catholic, but in terms of the repertoire I know, she never made a safer comment than when she suggested that human beings age.

There were other songs, of course, in which she philosophised about time and space. I Will Always Love You, for example, deals with our mistaken belief that a lifetime is “always” while simultaneously — and paradoxically — confirming that Dolly Parton is immortal. ..