Hari: An awkward social situation develops when two people exchange gifts and the gift given by the first is obviously more valuable than that given by the second  Yet whenever two people exchange gifts of equal value, the gift givers soon realize that they would have done as well to keep their gifts, not give them away  Gift exchange, ttherefore, invariably results in either social awkwardness or else a useless transfer of commodities  Mili: But that is not true of my experience  For example, an old childhood friend and I recently exchanged presents that I am sure were vastly different in price
Yet since we gave one another gifts each of which expressed the giver' s taste, we both considered the exchange highly appropriate
The chief consideration when selecting a gift is that the gift reflect the giver.