My Octopus Teacher - Craig Foster in London!

One of the best things about being in this fabulous metropolis is the infinitesimal amount of people who visit, tonight we had a really special visit from Craig Foster.

If you saw My Octopus Teacher on Netflix, then you know who Craig Foster is, the man who took us on those early morning freezing swims in the ocean kelp forest of South Africa.

There, we see the plethora of connection, the bio diversity and the unavoidable emotional connection this man has found in the midst of utter burn out, with the eight-legged pink invertebrate of the ocean.

If you haven’t seen it, you’re in for a treat. If you have, then his new book, which is why he’s in London, has a QR code that links to 27 more episodes.

Reason enough there to buy it possibly.

We were treated to a short film of an octopus taking Foster’s camera and turning it on him within the talk, we actually see from the octopus’s point of view, and see Craig Fosters knees knocking in the water looking back at the camera, held by an octopus.

Foster advocates learning the trails of the wild.

Unfolding in the hour we get to know the documentary filmmaker cum diver on this brief stage “the wild in all of us” he advocates, away from the “tame” of our washing machines, TV’s, computers and digital applications. Although he says he enjoys those too. 

But that it is the wild that is in there waiting, he says, just waiting for you to unleash it, and feel connected.

That it will be this connection that will connect us all, and eventually help our planet.

This connection too will bring you at one with yourself and the planet, less reliant on our human relationships and able to find balance within ourselves.

That is an irresistible elixir to me. He describes tracking, even in a city, where you can connect with an animal, understand it, and actually connect intuitively in a sense. This is part of the wonder we should be living our lives to be a big part of that.

He imparts a humble wisdom, being clear he is missing the swims in the kelp forest that he grew up in, even while in the womb, and yet acutely aware of his carbon footprint, as well as the ego, and what such a successful film and notoriety will impact as a human- he did not see this fame as a gift. It is such wisdom, as the ego can be so easily corrupted, I’ve seen it with many a journalist.

Curious he was on the sofas then with Kate Humble, a woman who got two stories of her own in, one about family and one about her presenting days in Shetland.

 She countered a lot of his stories and challenged him about being reckless with animals and foolish without opening the context, as well as chiding him about swimming in the cold. Even in the documentary he explains that he swum early, and without a wetsuit to feel the elements, and to let the cold guide him. Kate wouldn’t even let him do an intro to his own video. Humble might have been her name, but hankering for limelight was such a shame in an event where she was simply meant to assist getting someone else’s story out.

Everyone in that room knew who he was, everyone felt some sort of connection to Craig Fosters story, and to the Octopus teacher. 

One question came from someone who lived in Kenya and one from Borneo, one organisation asked if he would assist in stopping the Octopus farms that were being considered, and one young member of the audience asked how he could help Octopus, Foster answered, self-effacing in as he had the whole talk, and explained that all biodiversity was important and worthy of care.
However the in-person the audience struggled in diversity itself.

If we pull one thread, he said, we will unravel it all.

Wise words I think, and wiser still to find my own wild. Even in the city of London.