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
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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.
