Yesterday, I took  a stroll along Copacabana beach, Rio, heading towards Ipanema beach – not a bad way to spend a Sunday afternoon, I’ll admit! – and almost inevitably, I suppose, found myself humming that wonderful classic “The Girl from Ipanema” written in 1962 by two local musicians and recorded by countless artists since.

It’s a truly lovely song about beauty and desire and I couldn’t help but think about the ephemeral nature of the former. The “Girl” in the song, will now be aged about 75 years and sadly, I imagine, the lyrics no longer apply.

The lines “Tall and tanned and young and lovely the girl from Ipanema goes walking……..” could now translate to “Small and wrinkled and old and tubby the granny from Ipanema goes shuffling….!” How cruel, but how cruel life can be for those obsessed by their physical appearance.

There is of course, a beauty far deeper than that limited merely to the  skin and, as they say, it is the beauty within that really matters. Or is that something with which we console ourselves as the years advance?

Probably, but personally I prefer to think of the “Girl from Ipanema” as ageing gracefully with style and class. If not, we’ll just have to console ourselves by admiring her granddaughters instead!