Receiver of Memory

The evening processed as wellevenings did inthe family unit, in the dwelling, in the community: quiet, reflective, a time for renewal and preparation for the day to come.
But at the same time he was filled with fear. He did not know what his selection meant. He did not know what he was to become. 
Or what would become of him.
"There's much more. There's all that goes beyond - all that is Elsewhere - and all that goes back, and back, and back. I received all of those, when I was selected. And here in this room, all alone, I re-experience them again and again. It is how wisdom comes. And how we shape our future."
"I didn't. I used my wisdom, from the memories. I knew that there has been times in the past - terrible times - when people had destroyed others in haste, in fear, and had brought about their own destruction.
Although he had through the memories learned about the pain of loss and loneliness, now he gained, too, an understanding of solitude and its joy.
Your father means that you used a very generalised word, so meaningless that it's become almost obsolete," his mother explained carefully.