I have a joke at work that I borrowed from the Forest Gump movie. Forest says that “life is like a box of chocolates 🍫 , you never know what you are going to get.”

I say that autopsy is like a box of chocolates — you never know what you’ll get. Is it the heart ❤️  today, the lungs 🫁 tomorrow, the liver next week? – at least for the natural deaths.

But some of the more interesting deaths, more unusual or fascinating, are the ones driven by the mind or mindset of the decedent or the perpetrator. These deaths are often unnatural — homicides, suicides, or accidents. In this realm, the mind’s thoughts are governed and ruled by external circumstances outside the control of the individual. 

These thoughts are focused on and fueled by actions done by or words spoken by someone. Yet because of what was done or said, the perpetrator or victim makes it mean something about them. They take it personally. And this is often where the actual problem lies.

Truer words have never been spoken by the late Norman Vincent Peale: “every problem has in it the seeds of its own solution.”

So the problem is never the circumstance. 

Did you hear me? 

The problem is never the circumstance. 

Because circumstances come and go. They change all the time. We can effect much change over our circumstances.

And how often does the circumstance change, yet the problem never really goes away?

Because the problem is not the circumstance. The problem is always in the mind — the thoughts about the circumstance. 

Some people may take offense to that statement. 

Others may find it empowering. 

Maybe the better question is how am I contributing to or perpetuating the circumstance?

Am I somehow allowing a circumstance or situation to thrive, grow, and spread — even when it is detrimental to me?

This gets me back to my original statement: 

“Autopsy is like a box of chocolates 🍫. You never know what you are going to get.”

 And I ask you the question. 

What are your allowing? 

From what situation or circumstance are you turning a blind eye? 

What are you tolerating that needs some handling?

Where is your silence (or inaction) allowing or hastening death?