From Ann Curry, TODAY
Life can be a whiplash. While Twittering from DC this morning, I suddenly got a call asking me to host a big deal UNHCR World Refugees Day event starting in an hour because CNN's Anderson Cooper's plane couldn't land in the rain.
UNHCR helps millions of refugees all over the world, so "no" was not an option.
| Manuel Balce Ceneta / AP |
| Actress and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie, left, and TV journalist Ann Curry, right, join the commemoration of World refugee Day at the National Geographic Society in Washington |
Robe and curlers flying, I was out the door in five minutes, worrying how I was going to pull this off.
To make matters even more spontaneous, one of the key speakers along with Angelina Jolie and the the UN High Commissioner on Refugees, was to be Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Except, I learned, she had fallen the night before and fractured an elbow.
Now looking back on all of it, I'm realizing several things:
- People united by a common purpose can pull off even the seemingly impossible even amid chaos.
- A pouring rain and sticky humidity still do not make Angelina Jolie have a bad hair day.
- Refugees, often because of the depth of their suffering, have so much love and gratitude, they make you cry.
- And Anderson Cooper should have taken the train.