I'm Scared of My Dreams

"Which is the most universal human characteristic: fear or laziness?" - Waking Life

While laziness may seem to be a trait in every person, fear, no doubt reigns supreme. Every child has a fear, from the dark to heights. Over the course of our lives, we tell ourselves that there is nothing to fear and we try to get rid of it. We get over our childish fears and move on to new ones. Many teenagers and adults fear failure. If I fail then I cannot have a successful future. All the time I see people working their asses off, not being lazy, to strive for success. Later in life people fear getting old. People try to act young to escape the fear, aka a midlife crisis. Near the end, death is our main fear. Many see it as the end but want to keep on living.

"Sanity is a madness put to good uses; waking life is a dream controlled." - Santayana

I agree with Satayana completely on the first part. How often have we told people, you must be crazy? Then when there is no other option, we become desperate and the madman's plan works. Then we say, you are a genius. In the video game Gears of War 2, there is a point where the protagonist, Marcus, sends the Chairman plans that seem crazy. Marcus wants to sink the city to flood the enemy home and stop them. When the two meet, Chairman Prescott proclaims, "When you sent me these files, I thought you were insane! But it appears as if you were right all along." If society comes to understand the supposed madman's theories then he becomes sane.
Dreams are uncontrollable unless you become aware that you are dreaming. Then you can turn the dream into anything you want. But they go beyond life. I am going to take a literal stance on this. In waking life we are still restricted by physics and cannot fly like in a dream. So a dream controlled is not waking life.