On the way to my office this morning, I passed a man buying two dozen roses for his girlfriend’s birthday. I wanted to stop him, to tell him she’d be just as happy to receive a single hand-picked rose as that giant tangled bunch. And what she’d really want, I would have told him, is to receive the other 23 roses, one by one, on days that weren’t birthdays or anniversaries or Hallmark holidays, but where he was just passing by a flower shop and thinking of her.

We guys don’t get it. In our minds, a bigger, more expensive toy is always a better gift than a smaller one. But in the perilous world of girl-gift giving, it really is the thought that counts. Any present that requires effort on our part, demonstrates we were listening that time she hinted at liking something two months back, or just implies that we spend large chunks of the time we’re alone thinking about her, is solid gold.