This probably isn't a good combination. I suddenly have some free
time that I'll be spending at home and some stories to tell. I've
actually started with the easier stories and I'm working my way up to
the more complicated stuff.

This story starts late in the last century. I was a volunteer at
the High Desert Museum for a number of years.

https://highdesertmuseum.org/

I had enjoyed visiting the museum and they were offering free
classes. It ended up becoming a big part of my social life. You met all
sorts of interesting people. They had fantastic parties, with live music
and food and wine. After you put in enough hours you could go to the
donor parties. Those people appreciated good stuff. And back when Don
Kerr was running the place the volunteers had a lot of leeway, as long
as you stayed within the guidelines. If the staff trained and trusted
you, you could work with the animals. One of the things I got to do was
talk about and free fly a red tailed hawk. It's awesome when any bird
lands on your glove. With the hawk you had to be careful to hold your
glove so that the hawk wasn't flying at your face. He wanted the food
you were holding and, when he was ready, he wanted it now. He would land
on your glove about the same way he would land on his prey.

I could also play a little with the one somewhat tame otter they
had at the time. She was a rescue animal who became to used to people to
be released back to the wild. I was sort of a kid in a candy store. I
got to do all sorts of stuff I had not expected to do. Working in the
old sawmill was another fun activity.

The way things worked out it had been over 20 years since I had
seen the museum. They have made some excellent changes. I don't think
Doris and the Bhagwan ever met, but they're now sort of living together
in the museum. I was a volunteer out there when Don convinced Doris
Bounds to donate her collection to the museum. There must have been a
lot of competition for it. Don was just a nice person and very charming.
Doris had been a banker in Hermiston and a collector from a young age.
As she said, "she collected beautiful things." Some of them were so
culturally significant that they had to be returned to the tribes. The
museum used to show parts of the collection, and I've been down in the
vault and seen stuff that wasn't on display. Now they're able to show
most of the collection at the same time. That alone is worth the price
of admission.

https://www.indiancraftshopsales.com/native-arts-of-the-columbia-plateau-the-doris-swayze-bounds-collection-of-native-american-artifacts.aspx

"Native Arts of the Columbia Plateau: The Doris Swayze Bounds Collection
of Native American Artifacts"

They have also built a beautiful birds of prey exhibit
appropriately dedicated to Don Kerr. It had been in the planning stages
when I was there.

By now I hope you're wondering how the Bhagwan got into this
story. It was one of the nicest little surprises of the whole trip. The
museum has one of The Bhagwan's Rolls Royces, appropriately blinged out
for the guru. It's a freakin' hoot and part of their exhibit on
attempted utopias in the west.

"New High Desert Museum exhibit focuses on intentional communities, utopias 'Imagine a World' opens Saturday at High Desert Museum
By DAVID JASPER • The Bulletin Jan 26, 2022 Updated Jan 26, 2022"

https://www.bendbulletin.com/lifestyle/new-high-desert-museum-exhibit-focuses-on-intentional-communities-utopias/article_c9419b10-7ad1-11ec-a05d-b3932b1875bb.html

TB

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