Mementos, Notes, and Fragments

It reads like the pilot for a reality show. Two people are in the midst of an intractable argument so bad their friends and family can’t stand it anymore, so they’re dispatched by boat to an uninhabited island in the Scottish Highlands. Along with the feuding parties, the boat delivers a case of whisky, a supply of sweetened oatcakes, and a thick wheel of cheese. Left alone, hungry and crazed, will the quarrelers fight to the death over the supplies? Or will they patch things up?

This isn’t a television pitch. It’s the very real Eilean a’ Chòmhraidh, the Isle of Discussion, a tiny, heart-shaped island perhaps one thousand square feet, bare of structures (though in the thirteenth century it held a tiny castle), in Scotland’s Loch Leven. It’s part of a string of islets, many of which served distinct purposes, some for worship, some for