Pain only exists in the present and memories in the past.
And the thing that makes memories valuable is that they serve as a reminder of past pain.
You can’t feel the pain you felt when you fell off your bike at age 8 or your first break-up.
But you remember the effect of it, how you were and how the experience was.
Because of memories we know to avoid the lego on the floor or not to enter bad relationships.
Thanks to memories we can try to be better, make better choices and avoid a present life of pain.