balancing work and family - a role model

Balancing work deadlines and family responsibilities is sometimes challenging, and probably the last place you would think to look for moral guidance in this area is the sports pages of your local newspaper. I am not a Utah Jazz fan, and before looking t today’s newspaper I had no idea who Derek Fisher is (he’s their point guard, in case you didn’t know either), but this story explains why I'm rooting for him. Faced with missing a crucial playoff game or being with his 10 month old daughter while she had risky surgery to try to save her eye from retinal cancer, Fisher made an unequivocal choice:

Abramson [the doctor] asked Fisher whether they should try to push the appointment back. “Absolutely not,” Abramson recalls Fisher telling him. “Just do what’s best for my child. How many games I miss in the playoffs is totally rrelevant.”

Abramson was still not convinced. “I understand,” he remembered telling Fisher. “But this is the pinnacle of what you do. Maybe we can make some adjustments.”

Fisher was unmoved. “Absolutely not,” he said again.

And the story has a happy ending as well: his daughter came through surgery fine, Fisher was flown by private jet to Utah to make the game in time for the third quarter, and his presence helped the Jazz pull off a win. But regardless of the final score to the game, Derek Fisher was already a winner in my book.