Paul Henken
University of Tennessee College of Law Class of 2025
Tennessee Journal of Business Law Editor-in-Chief

Change isn’t permanent, but change is.  This insight did not come from Socrates, Plato, Confucius, or Camus.  The rock group who claims this phrase is Rush, who slipped “change isn’t permanent, but change is” into the 1981 hit Tom Sawyer.  I remember this because my father pointed out the line many years ago.  And I have never forgotten it.

Memory. The concept of memory has caused great joy and frustration lately.  Interestingly, we will deal with memory and our relationship with it throughout our entire life.  (And on a consistency, more so than death and taxes.)  But what has been particularly interesting as of late has been thinking through the way memories interface with your relationship with others, society at large, and most importantly, yourself. 

Don’t worry. I am aware this sounds wonky.  I do not know what the right way to think about this is, but I do know one thing: your memories impact your day-to-day life more than you think. 

Memories can be on the tip of your tongue.  Memories can be locked away.  Memories can come rushing back at any sight, smell, or noise.  Memories inform you.  Memories tell you when you feel safe or threatened.  Memories increase your emotional temperature and push and pull you in ways you cannot explain or understand.  And once you get thrown into an emotional wasteland, your ability to make rational judgments gets thrown out the window.

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Here is another strange sounding yet vexing question: Do your memories inform your emotions, or do your emotions inform your memories?  I am sure the answer to this question is floating around a maroon-carpeted and mahogany-adorned scientific library, but the “true” answer is probably in your head.  In one sense, if seeing a red car reminds you of that time your first boss berated you for a small error you will never own a red car in your life because you swore that anyone who drives a red car is an egomaniac with a temper problem; your emotion is informed by your memory of how you felt that day.  (Relax, I am kidding about the red car and egomaniac thing – I never had a boss that drove a red car, and I drove a red car in college until the spark plug melted into the engine.)

But what about the inverse?  Can your memory inform your emotion towards something?  Pause and think. (It ruins the theatrical suspense of the written word if you do not).

Time’s up.  Likely you wracked your brain for a second and then landed on the conclusion that the inverse is just the same question and answer.  The more I think about it, the more I realize that emotions and memories converge into a strange mixture where they all happen simultaneously.  Barnett Newman, an American abstract expressionist artist, said this about his work: “If you don’t look at it and instantly understand it, you will never understand it.”

Well, what a load of &!*%!  When was there a “one look” rule for understanding emotions and memories?  Thankfully, that rule does not exist.  But – we often pretend it does.  We lose patience with our misunderstanding of ourselves and our relationship with our memories and emotions.  Maybe my use of “we” is just me trying to project my own frustrations with myself onto the world, trying to make me feel less alone in my own tiny world, which is known as my brain.  (See there it is.  My own memories and emotions working real-time to inform me about myself.)

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One of the most insightful quotes I have ever heard came from a Tiger Woods hype video.  The clip showed the aging athlete, looking tired and overwhelmed, swarmed by adoring fans, with an announcer saying simply, “We can’t let you go.”  So much of our personal and collective identity is committed to finding balance and perpetuity in our world.  But we all recognize a harsh reality at some point in our lives: Some things are meant to end.

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A family cat died recently.  We adopted two new cats a few weeks later to keep the older cat company.  A family member was upset about this—placing new kitties in our lives and letting the memories of the late cat fade away with time.  In an effort to console, I stumbled upon my only coherent thought (so far) in 2024:

When we get older, and time passes, things change, and we are forced to reconcile with this change.  But the cool part about getting older and life is that we obtain all these new experiences and insights that let us reflect back on times past and we have the privilege and blessing to discover new things about ourselves, both back then and in the present. 

It is almost like life is this big game of I-Spy or Where’s Waldo?  However, the objective of this game is personal discovery through reflection.  Personal discovery, one reflective thought at a time.  Change should be embraced and celebrated since it is fertile ground for self-discovery about our emotions and memories.  After all – Change isn’t permanent, but change is.