Can you imagine if the phone rang and there was no caller ID?  What would you do?  Would you even answer at all?  Without caller ID it would be like playing Russian roulette, your only choice would be to pick up the phone and hope for the best.

That is what it was like living in the years BCID (Before Caller ID) and why I believe Bluetooth hands-free technology is one of the best inventions to roll out in recent years.  It has brought with it some of the excitement of the good old days.

First of all, I am fascinated at how well this cordless Bluetooth earpiece works.  When the phone rings, all I do to receive a call is press the button on the device attached to my ear.  Then I hear a, “blupe da blupe” sound which lets me know that I have answered and just like that I am talking to the caller.  No more fumbling for my phone, I don't even have to take it out of my pocket.  But with this luxury there's no opportunity to check caller ID before answering.

I also don’t have one of those new BMWs with the built-in Bluetooth caller ID technology that projects a hologram of the caller’s head rotating around in space above the center of the dashboard.  Mine is the basic device, so even when I am driving and a caller calls I have no idea who is calling until I answer.   And for this I have become incredibly grateful.

Up until now caller ID has given me the ability to pick and choose who I feel are worthy enough to interrupt and speak with me.  Of course I can come up a ton of great reasons why it is OK to avoid certain callers at certain times.  But unfortunately, I discovered by doing that I was choosing to miss opportunity.

Don’t get me wrong, I think caller ID is absolutely necessary, for instance it has curtailed a lot of devious behavior.  One of them has been the total obliteration of the ability of young boys to make anonymous crank calls.  Too bad this technology was late in coming, since it would have saved many of my ex-girlfriends from awaking to a ringing phone at 2am anticipating a family emergency and instead hearing my drunken voice slur, “I wuv woo,” before they hung-up on me.  So yes, caller ID has its place.

But for me, its better I have no idea who is calling.  It gives me no choice but to answer.  And since I have found it to be a fact that the greatest opportunities in my life have always been disguised as an inconvenience, by choosing to “ignore” an inconvenient caller I’ve been choosing to miss out. 

By having no choice but to answer also eliminated the twinges of guilt and subsequent justification that came every time I chose to press the “ignore” button.  Not to mention all the time I save from not having to retrieve and listen to the ignored caller’s messages later as well as having to return their calls.  Its true, avoidance is a full time job.