Let us begin in true philosophical fashion with the invention of a fantastic Platonic myth. In this spirit, let me state, tongue in cheek, that humanity is clearly descended from snails and turtles. We are alienated snails and turtles, and are perhaps best classified as hermit crabs. Clearly, given our propensity to build, all of the evidence points to the fact that our ancestors were beings that once had a home, that they were once sheltered. This is suggested by the fact that even when we have a home we feel curiously alienated from it and search for it. Not only did our ancestors have a home, that home was an organic part of their being. They were one with their home. It is for this reason, no doubt, that we perpetually yearn for the home that we lost. As a consequence, our slimy gooey bodies, descended from snails, formed exoskeletons, though of an existential sort, where we were condemned to forever seek shells of various sorts to replace that shell that had once been an organic part of our being. Yet unlike the hermit crab that steals its shell from a snail or perhaps happens upon an abandoned drink can or bottle, we are snails that have, through some strange dialectical gesture, learned how to build shells that nonetheless remain external to or outside of us. This is a crucial difference. While the hermit crab finds its shell, those species descended from the hermit crab – bears, prairie dogs, birds, termites, bees, wasps and humans – build their own shells. It's as if, with our shells, there must be a minimal alienation or contradiction. The homes are both ours – as a result of being constructed by us – while not being ours as a result of not being attached to us. We are not one with our homes.

As a consequence, unlike snails, we suffer a minimal alienation from our homes. The history of why this curse occurred and when precisely it happened is unclear. Legend has it that the gods were jealous and offended by the vanity of the snails who had such wondrous mobility, such beautiful shells and such impenetrable armour that they exiled these archaic snails and turtles from their organic dwellings, rendering them alien and foreign to those that inhabited them.