# Riva Talks To People.
## I talk to you and tell you about something I've been working on...
We are living through a significant moment in global history. It is imperative to stay as connected as we can to others despite the critical necessity to keep ourselves distanced physically.
I'm worried this statement sounds glib.
I do earnestly think there is a deep need to reckon with our own personal lives being intercepted by these bizarre and distressing set of conditions, whether that means dealing with the practical ramifications of cancelled plans, loneliness, or intensive bouts of existential anxiety. This is also set against a simultaneous requirement to fight myopic and individualist thought, which helps us cultivate a sense of collective purpose, while we each adjust and adhere to the new standards of living dictated by strict protective measures.
This set of concerns, along with my internal drive to record experience (which itself functions as my own coping mechanism) has resulted in my seeking out conversations with friends that reside across the world. I wanted to use these long-distance friendships to my advantage, to help me comprehend the crisis as experienced outside of the UK— outside of myself — and to calibrate the effects the spread of Covid-19 has had on these people, geographically, emotionally, and practically.
I believe these individual experiences presented together, surface certain commonalities, shared tenors of comprehension, and I believe there is something valuable, comforting in the act of identifying these threads.
As I continue with this self-administered task, I might branch out to interview people I am less (or entirely) unfamiliar with. For now, I am enjoying the benefits a pre-existing foundation of intimacy allows for when having these conversations, and I hope this quality translates well to the experience of reading them.
I'll follow this post with the first interview soon, and post thereon based on chronology.
I look forward to sharing them with you.
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