I have a two year old at home, and she has recently taken our household into that oft-discussed childhood rite of passage, the Age of “WHY?” As anyone knows who has ever interacted with a wee person in the Age of Why, this is a delightfully-amusingly-endearingly-and-yet-sometimes-maddeningly-unending challenge to my ability to communicate. And of late, I have realized it also an important existential challenge to my own understanding of purpose. When I am hard put to explain myself to my Age of Why dweller, I’ve asked myself to use the opportunity to reexamine my choices.

This season of celebration is an especially fascinating moment for living in the Age of Why–as every act of ritual, tradition, and festival is met with a plea from my wee person to help her understand what we are doing.

And woe unto me if I cannot find a suitable explanation.

So as I have sought gifts for loved ones this year, I have preempted my little conscience by actively reconnecting my thinking to my actions. Mostly this has to do with the nature of giving and the reason for selecting an object for its recipient–but importantly, the origin and spirit of the object given is also up for consideration.

We’ve been talking about local products for years at Saxapahaw General Store–to the point that sometimes the narrative becomes pat. This Solstice-Holiday-Year End time of festival, I have asked myself–really–to explain why local purchasing from artisan producers matters.

Why? For me, it’s a simple answer: Relationship.

I give a gift because I have a relationship with a person I wish to honor. With my gift, I tell a story. And when my gift has its own story–when it is alive with creativity, originality, striving, and care, my story comes alive too. My relationship is strengthened.

Do goods from far away have stories too? Sure. Maybe even good ones. But the stories of the gifts I get from nearby are more close, more accessible–and more alive.

My favorite example from our place: store logo t-shirts from the Cotton of the Carolinas series, printed by TS Designs in Burlington. Eric Henry gets this concept so well, he has dedicated the last few years to building a shirt that is alive at every level with a story I can find out myself without leaving North Carolina. Cotton growers right in our own state make a good living growing the material for these shirts. The cotton gets spun, cut and sewn by workers here in NC. The shirts are designed by professionals working in Burlington. They are dyed by well cared for staff in a conscious triple bottom line business.

And with the graphic of five rustic looking yellow stars, these shirts tell a tiny piece of our own story, too–the stars remind us of the time when our neighbor, RJ Dobs, brought Jeff, our tired chef, to tears by clapping for him after a meal he loved, and then showed up the next day to affix five hand cut golden yellow stars on our window. He said his meal at the gas station had rivaled a five-star restaurant experience, and he kindly complimented our work.

I am proud of this and other products at Saxapahaw General Store whose stories are available to givers and receivers of gifts this season. From Katie Nunn’s original note cards to April McGreger’s (the Farmer’s Daughter) chutneys to Erin Hills Shepherds’ (Harmony Farms) hand made soy candles, I am excited to be offering living gifts for people in my community to give and to receive.

I am honored to work at the general store with folks who have made it their jobs to create and strengthen relationships with these producers. Store manager Jeannie Voller meets with dozens of local vendors annually, and she has spent weeks finding just the right choices of products to include in gift baskets, available for our neighbors to offer their friends, colleagues, and families. She selects things to sell as gifts not merely for the sake of a bottom line–but because they will delight, and tell a story, to the receiver. She offers her own gift through that act of service.

I’m also grateful for the other members of Saxapahaw’s business community who offer similar choices–for the Saxapahaw Artists, the Canoe and Kayak Company, Benjamin Vineyards, Haw River Ballroom, Flying Beagle Books, The Eddy Pub, Roxy Farms Antiques, and the other merchants nearby whose mission includes producing a living body of work.

My thanks be to these colleagues and friends this season of festival–for making my travels through the Age of Why a time filled with meaning and with purpose.

My best to you as we approach the new year,

Cameron Ratliff