The Island of Discussion - Prologue

Prologue - Meredith Heaton

There is an island in Glencoe, Scotland placed in the center of a large lake.  For centuries the locals came to the island during times of dispute, conflict and unrest to settle their differences.  They were taken to the island by the local authorities, given food and wine to eat and drink and told not to return until a settlement could be reached.  No weapons or fighting instruments were allowed.  The authorities took the boats away so their only choice was to stay or swim through the cold, glacial waters to the far distant shore.  Most people stayed and were left to hash out their differences as they saw fit. Sometimes the parties would argue, some would yell loud enough that the people across the lake could hear.  Sometimes it took days, weeks, or months to come to a solution but time after time their differences were resolved. In fact, in the fifteen hundred years that the people used this island, there was only one murder in all the surrounding area and that was said to be done by an outsider.
It was for this purpose that I made my own place on an island. A place where people could come for peace. A place where many have come over the years to settle their differences.  Husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, parents and children, business partners, and friends.  Even a politician or two. All have come and found an answer and all have left with a solution.  I never imagined the island with so many gifts and all its secrets would be such a gift to someone so dear to me.  I never imagined the story and history of the island until that time.  I only knew how my family acquired the land and the buildings of the old Great Camp. I didn't understand how extraordinary a place it was until that summer.  Until the summer when Amelia returned to home to us. The summer that we all needed the Island of Discussion.