Precision

My father was a missionary accountant. He did the mundane grunt work that let the preaching types do the church planting. And the hundreds of sympathy messages my mother received show that even the laborer in the back room touched many lives.

He valued precision, as I suppose an accountant ought to do. This showed up in some unexpected ways.

My shoes are New Balance sneakers, and when untied each lace provides over 14 inches free on each side. (I measured them. One day I'll buy some shorter ones.) Dad's dress shoes had 3 inches free. To tie those things takes more finicky precision than I could stand, but he preferred it.