I decided the way I would handle the Shutdown/Debt Ceiling stuff was to think about why I love my country, what is so good and special about it, even this week when it doesn’t look that great. I met so many people this week who were frightened that I decided to pay some attention to the events today and I went on politico.com to check on developments – I used to be a political writer – and I was surprised to learn of the impact a small group of Republican women – all U.S. Senators – had on reaching a bi-partisan agreement to end the government shutdown and the debt ceiling crisis.

Senators Susan Collins (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Kelly Ayotte (New Hampshire) gathered a group of 19 Democratic and Republican senators and spent the last two weeks talking through a way to reach an agreement that no one loved but everyone could except – the once radical and unprecedented American model of governing. I was fascinated watching these women get up and speak about the experience – they were so completely different than the men behind the warring microphones we have been enduring for weeks, months, years.

The women showed a number of qualities their male colleagues and leaders have rarely shown in public life, and not shown at all in recent weeks. They empathized with all of the frightened and inconvenienced people, they understood they each have to to give up something to get something, they wanted a solution more than they wanted a victory or an argument. I loved seeing this, I have considered myself a feminist for a long time, the news from Washington reaffirms my belief that men are destroying the planet with their entrenched models of confrontation, victory and defeat, lack of perspective and insensitivity to human suffering. Watching these men bellow and posture and never listen day after day gave me a window into why wars happen and why people suffer and problems do not get resolved.

They have been labeled the “GOP” women, and they knocked the Senate on its pins, you could see all the male senators rushing to get to the podium to heap praise and wonder on them. Men have been battling on these issues day and night for months, nobody would move, women broke through the testosterone wall.

Women are different from men, they approach conflict and problems differently, I have seen it all of my life, and one of the things I love about this country is that women can enter politics, move up through the ranks and take over  a critical debate in one of the most powerful legislative bodies in the world – and then get it done, by dint of hard work, intelligence and a different way of approaching conflict. This conflict is far from over, it is just beginning, but I bet these women have a strong role in how it plays itself out.  I do not romanticize women, every nasty piece of e-mail I get is from a woman, but I believe women are the best hope for the world and watching these live video stream of the Senate discussion.

These women changed the world a bit this week, they showed us the potential impact of women in civic life, they just need to take over the country, I am ready to get off my butt and support that idea, I think the world depends on it.

For those of you who are despairing about this week, I would encourage you to listen to these women and remember what it is about this country that is so wonderful, even as it sometimes makes us weep in frustration.