April's Creative Mornings offers a humbling take on creative thinking

The theme for this month’s Creative Mornings lecture was “humility.” This morning’s talk by Anthony Haro, head of the Lowcountry Homeless Coalition, addressed a real issue with real solutions — homelessness.

We love the creative talks by CMCHS as much as the next guy, but it was really refreshing to hear about something, as Haro called it, that wasn’t “sexy.” Haro embraced the creative aspect of this lecture series by offering a “creative approach” to the homeless problem in Charleston. Basically, we need to think about homelessness on the macro level. Homeless people need homes. Stable housing is Haro’s first and foremost priority.

Speaking before about 130 people, Haro explained that, like in geometry, the shortest distance between two points is a straight line: Homeless to homes. It may sound simple, but it’s really, really complicated. This became even more clear during the question and answer session, when people earnestly asked the same kind of question over and over, “How can I help?”

To most people Haro offered, “Do what you think is best.” Because, when it comes down to it, only you can determine what to give (or not to give) to the panhandler at the red light. One man in the audience urged people to bring supplies to the inhabitants of the tent city under Huger bridge. Haro thanked him for his compassion, but suggested that sometimes enabling someone to live in such conditions prevents them from making the move to a stable home.

What you can do is donate or volunteer to and with places like Lowcountry Homeless Coalition and One80 Place. And beyond that, do what Haro does — take a deep breath and view people with compassion before judging them based on their circumstances.

We don’t know what next month’s CMCHS theme or location is, but we do know that it will be at 8 a.m. on May 29.