"Yes indeed," replied the little creature. "That is why we Fuzzy Yellow Wogglebugs have such bright, happy cheerful dispositions — which is just as well, I might add. You see, some of the other animals don't like us; they are quite jealous of our bright yellow color, and can be quite hurtful at times."
"I'm so sorry," said Dorothy. "But you are so nice, why would anyone want to be hurtful?"
"Well, unfortunately, they only see our color; they don't see the person. We are personalities just like them, but they don't choose to see beyond our color, so they won't have much to do with us. Why, just the other day, my little girl was playing at school with a little brown girl bear she had become friends with, when the other bigger brown bears took the little girl brown bear aside and said, 'Why are you playing with that Yellow Wogglebug?' My little girl's friend said, 'Because she's very nice to me, and we're friends.' 'Well, don't mix with those Yellow Wogglebugs,' they told her. 'Play with your own kind.' So now the little brown girl bear and my little girl are quite sad and, needless to say, lonely, because they liked each other more than anyone else at school."
"You know," said Dorothy, "the bigger brown bears that told the little girl brown bear not to play with your little girl are the ones I feel sorry for."
"Sorry for them?" exclaimed the Fuzzy Yellow Wogglebug in surprise. "Why would you be sorry for them?"
"Well, they are the real losers," said Dorothy, "for they must go through life with all that hatred and resentment inside them. Not very conducive to becoming a happy well-adjusted person."
"You show great insight for one so young," said the Fuzzy Yellow Wogglebug. "What you say is so true. Yet many people fail to see it."
"It seems to me they don't want to," said Dorothy.
"But why not?" asked the Fuzzy Yellow Wogglebug. "Do they prefer to be miserable?"
"It appears that way, doesn't it? I was just discussing this with my friends. People are often their own worst enemy. They are at the mercy of their thoughts, so to speak. They do not make a concentrated effort to control their thoughts, so their thoughts control them."