After meeting this month's Seasoned Observer-featured gentleman, seeing his dedication to save a part of history to benefit future generations and hearing his story of Ulysses S. Grant's decision to leave his comfortable life in Galena to serve God and country, I started thinking about people I've known who also left their own comfortable lives behind in order to serve.

There have been quite a few men and women over the years who have inspired me to try to break my own dependence on comfort — a huge and often-ignored deterrent to spiritual growth, to hearing God's call and to becoming a disciple of Christ.

Lent, with its challenge to more fully embrace prayer, fasting and almsgiving, is an ideal time for all of us to examine our lives and consider where our comfort has become too important to us. When our big quest in life is to make ourselves comfortable, something is greatly amiss.

There is too much other, more important, work to be done — for God and country, and for each other.
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On a different note, although our special sections give us a bit more room than usual for stories, we did not have space last week for more than a few words about the medallion reproductions to be given to donors to the Foundation for U.S. Grant's Legacy, an IRS approved tax deductible not-for-profit corporation.

I'm sure everyone can celebrate Father Rolheiser's great news at left, and also easily ponder how we might aim this Lent to move past our quests for comfort. So I decided to use the rest of this space for more details about the medallions.

The medallions should appeal to anyone who has ever enjoyed absorbing the history of Galena, or the feeling of a Civil War site and other places of significant events in our country's history.

There are five U.S. Grant/Civil War Sesquicentennial Medallions that have been reproduced under the direction of Dr. Kyle Metz-loff, professor at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, using a lost wax process. All five of the original medallions were made either in 1868 or 1872 for U.S. Grant's two Presidential campaigns.

They will come in two styles: antique pewter (the style pictured here) and a satin-buffed pewter. They have been inscribed with current dates, showing they are Sesquicentennial editions. All medallions will be shipped in gift boxes and each will include a documented history behind the medallion and what it represents.

The largest medallion (pictured) has the image of U.S. Grant on one side and "Let us have peace"— the concluding words of Grant's first Presidential inauguration speech. The reverse, "Let the men (meaning those who had served in the Confederacy) keep their horses they will need them to plow with," were Grant's words to Confederate General Robert E. Lee on the day of Lee's surrender, April 9, 1865, showing Grant's compassion and magnanimity for his defeated foe. The original medallion was issued only once in 1872 and is thought to be exceptionally rare. This reproduction will be sent to donors of $100.

Donors of $75 can choose one of two quarter-sized medallions: an 1868 medallion of Grant and his battlefield words, " I will fight it out on this line if it takes all Summer" or a medallion with the date of Lee's surrender to Grant, April 9, 1865, virtually ending one of the bloodiest wars in America's history.

Donors giving $50 can choose from two dime-sized medallions, one picturing Grant on one side and Abraham Lincoln on the other side, the second pictures Grant and George Washington.

The entire set of five is given to donors of $250 and, for those who would like a complete set in each style, the two sets will be your gift with a $400 donation.

Send donations for The Foundation for U.S. Grant's Legacy to: 121 S. High St., Galena, IL 61036. For more information about the medallions, about the Foundation, or about Grant's first residence in Galena and efforts to preserve that home, contact James Wirth at 815/777-8429, or email: jameswirth1861@gmail.com.