To Be Atermined

Thinking about my sweet little toddler Rachel and all the funny things she used to say, I think enough time has elapsed that I can share a sweet little teenage Rachel story, which is simply this:

You know the acronyms TBA and TBD? 

They're thrown out quite regularly. One place in particular that TBA shows up in our religious culture is in the ward bulletin, usually in place of putting any names down for opening and closing prayers. 

Typically these are listed as the "invocation," (not an incantation, Alexander), a prayer used to invoke the spirit, and a "benediction," a blessing or good word (of prayer) offered at the close of the meeting. And quite often these invocations and benedictions are unassigned...until they're assigned at the last minute when the bishop or one of his counselors shakes your hand.

So beside invocation it will say "TBA" and beside benediction it will say "TBA" and you just kind of have to hope it's not you (unless you happen to be the kind of person who likes praying in public and then—kudos)!

Anyway, poor Rachel knew about TBD from other contexts—schedules, itineraries, etc. will often say some date or time or amount of something is TBD. That's "To Be Determined." 

And for years Rachel simply figured that TBA stood for "To Be Atermined" (whatever that means).

So now we say it whenever we see TBA and one of these days I know we're going to say it aloud in an important meeting by accident because...that's just how life goes!