Chance or destiny?

Acceleration by Stefano Lavorini

We go through experiences that lead us to wonder, perhaps confusedly, whether what is happening around us is the result of chance or destiny; to wonder whether an occurrence simply has a definite and identifiable cause (chance), or whether in turn it is inevitable that it occurs on the basis of a set and invariable sequence of events (destiny).

Often we give the name of “chance” to what we are not capable of explaining or foreseeing, while with the term “destiny” we attribute the power to achieve the future, on the basis of a preset natural order of the universe.
«Destiny roots our being in the future, gives sense to occurrence, connects existence to a design and a persistence. To be is to have a destiny.» (1)
Freeing oneself from destiny indeed means giving oneself up to chance and the chain of cause and effect that derives from the same.
«Indeed chance is a haphazard occurrence, yet not even destiny is chosen; rather it looms impendingly». (2)

To stay on the subject, one can deem fascinating the interpretation of the story of Odysseus given by Eugenio Scalfari in his book “On the open high seas”, or that is the myth per excellence that represents the deepest aspects of modernity, of that way thinking that was and is independent of consciousness and hence awareness of oneself.
Indeed, the hero, after returning to Ithaca and having taken his revenge, after spending a few brief seasons in peace, takes to the sea again headed for Hercule’s columns; there, once he reaches the great ocean, is swept away for ever by a whirlwind.
The sense of the story is in the answer to why Odysseus sets off again after for many years being obsessed by the thought of returning.
Does he start out gain because it is his destiny to do so? But if one discovered that destiny does not exist, despite that fact that there is no storm, nor landing-place, nor battle, nor encounter that are not inscribed in Odysseus’ destiny…
Perhaps, «the world, the species that inhabit the same, mankind and nature, are all the result of chance. And chance, as you know, is the opposite of destiny. But when we tell a story we cannot but help find a purpose in the same. The arrow must have a target: this is how our mind works and how we are led by it. Hence we invent destiny. It relieves us, gives sense to our being…
And can you not see that what you call destiny is only haughtiness, an attempt at consolation to assuage our desperation of having to die? If somebody has established your destiny, your path through existence was written, had a purpose and did and does not occur in vain….. But friend, you have to resign yourself to the fact: you only lived by chance, your existence has no importance whatsoever; you will leave no trace and you will go the way of all things, buried by the wages of time…».
For this reason «Having reached the end of his path, the man who has acquired knowledge and wisdom, is aware of one thing only: that time has passed».
As Andrea Zanzotto wrote in his poem “Yes, the snow again”:
“But what will become of us?
What will become of the snow, the garden,
what will become of free will and destiny,
and of he who has lost his way in the snow…”

(1) Marcello Veneziani
(2) Paolo Masini