Sincerely, Best, Regards, Goodbye

Dear J,

I adore you.  I can’t live another moment without you.  You are the air I breathe.

Kind Regards,

R

- – -

I’ve wrestled with email signatures since my first electronic communique.  Whether it’s a three-second quickie note or an arduously crafted work of art, I always get to the bottom and freeze.  Nothing works.  Absolutely nothing.  And I’ve tried it all.

“Sincerely” is a relic, “Love” is rarely appropriate, “Cheers” is way too Brit, “Best” is cold and “Regards” icy.  I type out each, erase, try again, erase.  Sometimes I get halfway through typing “Peace” or “XOXO” and shake my head.

After years of frustration I finally settled on “Thanks” which works decently, but is often pretty clunky- especially when asking for any kind of favor.  Assumption is the worst, and “Thanks” makes the whole email one huge assumption.

Here’s a fantastic article from the Washington Post obsessing over email signatures- which I completely agree, demands our complete attention as a society.  We must find a way out of this jail we’ve created for ourselves.  We are prisoners of our own email.