Bilateral fear

So I was thinking too much this morning, as I am often wont to do, and I came up with a question that I cannot answer.

I figure there are two types of people in this world: those who believe things happen to them, and those who believe they control their fates.  I don't think either is necessarily better...it's just an observation.  I know both kinds of people who live their lives purposefully and meaningfully and with great success.

But I wonder, which is more scary?

Is it more scary to think that you have no control over your fate, your destiny?  That you have to just go along with whatever the world dishes out to you?  There's a certain fear of the uncertain, the unknown, going on there.  Powerlessness.

Or is it more scary to behold the awesome responsibility of controlling your own fate?  I mean, this is it, folks.  One shot.  What if you don't make the most of it?  What if you don't contribute, in some meaningful way, to this world and the people in it, when you had the chance?  What if everything is right there in your hands...and you choke?

Just one of the things I'm thinking about today.

Along with the sheer lunacy of AT&T not being prepared to sell me a new iPhone, dammit.