Monitor readers often ask, “Where do you get your story ideas?” The answer in this case: a rustic stone cottage with no internet. 

While on vacation, my husband and I were reading Capt. C.B. “Sully” Sullenberger’s book about his 2009 forced landing on the Hudson River – and the lifetime of preparation that enabled him to save all 155 people aboard. 

After a bird strike incapacitated his plane at low altitude, he showed extraordinary problem-solving, decisiveness, and disciplined focus. Those qualities struck me as ones that could help break gridlock in Congress. And I began thinking: Who else from the civilian world could provide leadership advice forged in crisis?

I recalled Pete Kristiansen, who had helped us with some urgent bathroom repairs when we first moved to Washington, D.C., saying that it’s not the people in suits who hold the power in Washington – it’s the plumbers. (Indeed, there’s nothing like a plumbing emergency to give new meaning to “levers of power.”) And I remembered Antoinette Tuff, who thwarted a 2013 school shooting through her faith and love for the troubled young gunman. 

Congress may see itself as a body of gifted elites who don’t need advice from plumbers or folks outside the Beltway. But America was founded on the idea that “We the people” are sovereign. That gives a certain credibility to this “We the problem-solvers” approach to an institution in crisis – one many see as out of touch with the people it was designed to serve.

Not all ideas hatched by a wood stove come to fruition, of course. Special gratitude goes to our late colleague Dave Scott, who encouraged me to pursue this out-of-the-box idea. Thanks to our willing sources and Clara Germani, my dedicated editor, here it is, ready for you to unwrap. May 2023 bring more problem-solving, in Congress and beyond.