George wants to read stories. He wants to read stories written by me. He gets so angry with me for playing too much beach volleyball and not writing, not becoming this great writer, or great musician, or great scientist, that my talents promise me to be. He uses more and more profanity toward me over the years, hoping to scare the stories out of me. Little does he know that the profanity, the darkness, the ugliness, are all becoming something beautiful in my universe. He laments that I have no dark side. Darkness is what makes someone interesting, he says. Mike also comments that I am too innocent, too good, maybe too sheltered, that I cannot bear to see the dark side of people. Junjun says I have not suffered and therefore I am not deep. Are they right about me? Or is it because I can reach too dark a place inside myself that I have learned to show only the bright side of me? Naivete, cheerfulness, saintliness are those good qualities that often make one boring, shallow, or pretentious. I don’t believe a thoughtful person can be truly innocent and saintly. Everyone has darkness in them. Some wear the darkness outside, others bury inside. The fact that George and Mike and Junjun and many others love me and are intrigued or inspired by me is the evidence that I am not only a shallow, cheerful person. I am cheerful because I want to project this image to the world. I want to be cheerful and sunny and bright and positive, because I believe our world needs more positive depth. There are already too many critical thinkers who want to wake up the world, but how they make people uneasy. There are already too much anger, too much profanity, too many cries of desperation. I want to bring a little more sunshine to the wounded world.