We often think we determine Truth with our innate ability to reason but truth becomes more difficult to recognize with each ‘advance’ into the Digital Age. The core section is the Revelation with what God has to say about Himselves. Perceptions is about those ways we often move away from His revealings to arrive at what we want. The Blogs are call-outs for thinking about what is most valued.

A little background on “Cowsbell” – in the mid-1970s I worked in marketing for a large retailer and as part of my duties occasionally talked to vendors across the United States. Every once in a while, conversation would turn to where we were located. My office was in Kalispell, Montana but when I gave that answer, the other end of the conversation would try to make that unfamiliar name something they recognized. Yes, Kalispell sometimes became ‘Cowsbell’ in the ear of the listener.

Truth is like that – we try to make it relate to what we already know, what we believe, what is already part of our experience. This “Truth” does not always fit well into what is True.

The Cowsbell Phenomena is “belief from the familiar rather than Truth conformed to the verifiable.”

That’s what Cowsbell is about – making sense of what we believe by recognizing what is meant rather than our traditions or experience.

Connotation versus denotation. What does a word mean to you versus its actual definition? My first experience with another “cowsbell” was the Spring of 1962 when we moved an uncle’s cattle from the dairy operation onto my grandfather’s property five miles away. They moved from open grassland or feedlots around the dairy operation to the 320 acre, mostly-forested range where they would spend the summer grazing. The summer range was largely forested and included hills, draws, streams and other line-of-sight limitations. We checked the herd at least a couple times a week but depending upon where they were grazing, it could be difficult to find them. While they tended to stay together, they would get as far into the woods as possible to escape the heat and flies. The age-old solution to ease locating was having the herd leader—usually one of the older cows—wear a cow bell. This could be heard for some distance and draw us right to the herd.

That is what a cow’s bell was to me until one of my business acquaintances took my city to be Cowsbell! It was decades later that this became a relevant lesson for me.

How is it that we try to fit new information into old familiars? How often do we count on past experience to make sense of new Truth?

Many of us have grown up with faulty filters which lead us to distorted perception. Our quest will be to differentiate perception from Truth but in a practical arena rather than some metaphysical realm. Think: “God is Real, religion probably a little less.”

My content is not about philosophy but rather practical living in revealed content that does not fail our expectations once we have aligned those expectations with reality. I believe it best to be truthful and face life as it is than to try to live out a false premise. But, if you insist in going with your happiness…