The Hermit Crab Parable

The Hermit Crab Parable

A man stands on a beach. A large rock lies in the sand nearby. From where the shadow of the rock ends and the sun's rays hit the sand, a tiny hermit crab emerges, but the man does not see. He stares into the horizon when a sharp pain excites his right ankle. The tiny crab has latched its claw onto the man. He smiles jovially and asks it, "will you stop clenching yourself on me?" 

The crab is surprised; it thought its grip was strong and mighty, and the man's reaction casts a spell on it. It waddles back to its rock, unsure of what to do next. 

The man quickly forgets the tiny crab had visited. A passing woman with her baby greets him and asks him how he is enjoying the day. He says, 

"The breeze is salty; the sand hugs my feet; 

and I cannot find a cloud in the sky."

Not long after, the woman disappears, as does her baby. The man ponders further, when a second crab, a centimeter larger than the one before, emerges from a rock's shadow into the sunny sand. It, too, thinks it is grand and mighty, and it pinches the man's right ankle, just as the first crab had done. The man again smiles jovially and asks, "will you stop clenching yourself on me?" But the crab does not budge. The man balances on his left leg, lifts his right foor up, and peers at the crab, puzzled. His eyebrows twist, and he asks, "What do you want from me? I have nothing to give to you." Still, the crab's pinchers grip tighter. With a large sigh, the man uses his two meaty hands to unhinge the crab and place it on a free patch of blazing sand. It looks up at the man, who watches it with wide eyes. Unsettled, the crab scurries back to the rock from whence it came. 

The man ponders and remembers the woman and her baby, when a third crab, a centimeter larger than the last, finds his right ankle with more force than either of the previous crabs. Even so, the man smiles, pries its pinchers off, and places it on the indent in the sand where the previous one had stood. This crab, however, does not scurry off. From the indent in the sand, it looks up into the man's wide eyes, then straight ahead at the plump, reddened ankle. The crab scuttles up to the man's right foot and latches on once more. The man delivers him to the indent in the sand once more. This time, the crab scurries away and seeks its rock. 

The sun above falls from its peak in the sky, and the man leaves the beach to eat, play, and laugh with his brothers and sisters. Every Saturday, he returns to the beach, for the weeks are busy and filled with noise, and on the beach he finds peace and quiet. 

Along the walkway where sand meets the grass, the woman accompanying her baby appears again. Seeing the man's swollen ankle, she cries out, "Wear socks, my boy! Thick socks will protect you."

The man feels a tear in his eye and wonders, "Then how would the sand hug my feet?"

The mother of the child rubs her palm into her neck, thinking, then cries out, 

"Go to another beach, then, where there are no 

crabs that can hurt you."

The man beholds her and says, 

"Then how would I see you 

walking your child? How would I 

see this very view of the sun, or these 

funny crabs? I love here, 

and I cannot leave a place I love."

The mother pushes her baby's stroller and cries, finally, 

"Then run when they emerge!"

Before the man can answer her, she disappears. 

The man ponders the woman's words; meanwhile, crabs emerge from the rock shadows, one after the other, each one a millimeter larger than the last. Some receive the man's message right away and flee; others he pries off eight...eleven...twenty times before they flee. As each one tests him, his hands ache more and more, his ankle bulges plumper and redder, and whichever crab is in the indent in the sand finds it harder and harder to resist. The man can almost hear the woman shouting, "Run!" and he cries out, "Then how will they learn not to pinch ankles. They need a teacher!"

And the man believed that these crabs were all capable of learning. He imagined that at the end of the day, as the sun fell from the side of the earth, and as he turned his back to the ocean to return home, all of the crabs he had met would emerge from their rocks and gather together in a circle on the sand, wave their pinchers in the air towards him, and then go foraging together in the open moonlight. His face softens at this vision, and he is ready for it to become true. 

Then, another vision, more haunting, flashes before him. The biggest crab yet stands before him. All the smaller crabs poke their heads out from their rocks. From the indent in the sand, the big crab looks into his eyes, and his voice rattles the earth. 

"We are crabs," it says. "You are not special."

And the big crab pinches the man's ankle, and the man's whole foot snaps off his leg. 

The man falls to his knees so that the sand hugs them. His torso flops forward, and his forehead crashes into the rock bed. All of the crabs, still as their rocks' shadows, watch the sand and the rock soak up blood. 

Having seen this vision, the man frowns, and accepts that it may become true. He watches the sun descend from its peak in the sky, lets the salty breeze fill his cheeks, and smiles.