Tom Guarriello reflects on community through his connection with Roger, a tow-truck dispatcher whose YouTube videos captivated thousands. When Roger died recently, the YouTube community mourned someone whose candid multitasking streams had created unexpected bonds across very different lives.
Wahai, it's Tom Guarriello. You know, I don't know what the word community means to you, but to a lot of people it connotes some kind of fancy, highfalutin kind of idea about, you know, people in some sort of relationships that are all, you know, sweetness and light and friendship and you know, all agreeing on everything. And that's certainly— that's a fantasy of what community means. To me, community means having the opportunity to interact and have relationships with people you choose to have relationships with, and that the opportunity is there to have relationships with people who are different from yourself, you know. I'm a 60-year-old white guy. I live in Connecticut. If I only chose to have relationships with people like myself, my life would be boring. My life would— it would not be meaningful. I would be missing out on so much of what modern human life is about. That's one of the main reasons why I started watching YouTube videos and getting involved with the YouTube community. Now, when you get involved with people who are different from yourself, you know, you have to be able to look past those differences, to appreciate them for what they are as differences, but to look past them and to see, well, where, where are our commonalities? Where are we similar? And that was one of the things that drew me to Roger, the boring dispatcher. That Tim made a very touching video this morning announcing that Roger has passed away. Now, um, in a community like YouTube, like any community, um, people die. And it's a new experience for us. We have had people who have passed away before on YouTube, but it's still a new experience for us. And to lose a member of the community really brings home for me what it means to be part of a community. And Roger was a distinctive part of the community for me. Now, Roger and I lived very different lives. You know, Roger's videos made from his dispatch post Tom Guarriello sending out tow trucks all over LA to rescue and to retrieve vehicles of all kinds were always fascinating because, you know, here was a guy who was doing 8 things at once. He was smoking a cigarette, he was making a video, he was answering the phone, he was on the intercom, he was, you know, you know, watching videos. He was commenting on things, all with a unique kind of perspective and wit that I found to be very interesting and fun to watch. Did I watch every one of Roger's videos? No, but I watched a lot of Roger's videos, and I really appreciated that there was an intelligence and a humor there, a sharpness, a um, you know, and, uh, no tolerance for, for bullshit whatsoever. A real incisive look at the heart of things. And Roger just told it the way he saw it. You agreed with what Roger said, you didn't agree with what Roger said, it didn't matter. Roger said what he spoke, what he saw. Now, a couple of months, a few months ago I was, you know, doing what I do, which is to check in, you know, on my YouTube emails and see what's going on. And I got an email and I laughed out loud because it was an email notification that Roger had subscribed to my videos. And I have to say, that was one of those moments when I just said, wow, now that's really something. Here we are in this place where Somebody like Roger and somebody like myself who live very different lives, and if we only looked at things superficially, we would say, what in the world do those two guys see in one another's videos? Why would they, why would they watch one another's videos? But if you look beyond the surface, if you looked at, at what we were both trying to do, we had some similarities. We were both trying to talk about things as we saw them in the way that we saw them, and saying them in the way that we say them. So, uh, it was— it's very sad to me to know that Roger's gone. I was hoping he'd come back, you know, when his channel disappeared. As a member of the Community Council, I got lots and lots of messages from people: what happened to Roger? Did they throw him off? Whatever. And I didn't know. I had no idea what had happened to Roger. And, um, sadly, um, you know, Bat Tim, who was obviously deeply touched by Roger's loss, uh, and, and had established a really solid friendship with Roger. Sadly, it fell on Batim to pass the news on. So, um, to Roger's family, uh, deepest condolences, uh, for the loss of someone who was a really unique spirit and certainly will be missed here in this really diverse community that we've been trying to create together. So, um, again, sorry for your loss. Bye-bye.
