On a recent trip to the Dominican Republic, I had the opportunity to purchase five seashells. I haggled for them in Spanish with a man at a roadside stop, perhaps the last hurdle to prove that one is finally fluent in a foreign language. But the goal was to bring home the goods at the best price possible, and I think I succeeded, although exactly how much a Dominican peso is worth each day in U.S. dollars is always a question. But I wanted to have the shells for a good reason—as you will see. Seashells have always captivated me. Whether they are the large but very plain clamshells I played with on the Jersey Shore as a child, or the small but intricate ones found on Sanibel and Captiva Islands off the Gulf Coast of Florida, each one is different and has its own story. When a man lives …