Pavlov's dog

During the past few days, I have been waking up in a natural way, gently tickled by dim sunrays. The commotion in the school courtyard across the street had magically disappeared. So for the past few days, the first moments of my mornings have been blissfully serene. Of course, it’s only seconds before I, then, realized the reason for the unusual quietness.
Here is what typically happened on one of these past mornings, chosen randomly. A series of mental links are established, a light bulb flashes in my head, a release of chemicals generates feelings of bitterness and melancholy. Another assassination had happened few days ago, a jumble of fuzzy images of ambulances, police, blood, metallic pieces sweeps through my mind, this leads into that official decision to close down schools.
Melting down, invaded by thousands of question marks hammering on my poor skull, I drag myself into the toilet. For a second, I hesitate between grapping a comic book, a light traveler’s diary or the Economist so as to enhance my daily experience of bonding with human nature. I am suddenly alarmed by the beeping of my mobile phone in my bedroom, announcing the landing of an sms. My heart starts pounding. The hammering of question marks intensifies. I rush back into the room. Iran has displayed its new far-ranging missile in a military parade, reads the sms. Sometimes, it’s another car bomb in Iraq. Adrenaline drops sharply. I am kind of relieved. It didn’t happen “chez-nous”! I can slip back into my morning routine.
This physical reaction engendered by an sms makes me poise for a while. Have I developed a sort of conditioning to sms? In a simplified scheme of one mental circuit, this could be something like: beeping (a typical alert of a received sms), an URGENT message sent by a mobile news service (I had subscribed to one for professional reasons) announcing some kind of “catastrophe”, heart pounding, weakness in my knees, stomach spasms…
I can’t help imagining myself as a dog in a Pavlov-type of experiments run by evil state-representatives all conspiring against me. Each one of them has the name of his country embroidered on his white lab coat, and they are all laughing maniacally. They could have been paid by mobile phone moguls to generate world disorder that could then drive people to use these news service sms.
Oh Well, conspiracy theories can have many many forms when one reaches a stage of such absurdity! © El Periodista