If the universe of league bowlers in the U.S. represented the population of the earth, then, since 1979, every last person living in the world's 20 largest countries - 4.4 billion to be exact - would have been completely wiped out.

China, India, the United States, Russia, Brazil, Japan, Mexico, the Philippines and 12 other citadels of civilization, once teeming with activity and life, would have been reduced to completely barren wastelands and vast ranges of open space.   The towering and prosperous cities of the world, the wholesome breadbaskets of agriculture and the glorious monuments of our technological and social progress, would lay abandoned, collecting dust, plunging our world into darkness and decay.

The impact of this tragedy on the great interwoven fabric of the world would certainly cause enormous suffering to the remaining 30 percent as well, depriving these people of food, technological innovations, and other essential resources upon which the rest of the world depends.  Not to mention the terrifying knowledge that every man, woman and child, every great leader and head of state, every loving family, every accomplished schoolteacher, every acclaimed entertainer and every prodigiously intelligent student within this population could not stop it.

What would the survivors of this cataclysm do to rebuild the community of our planet and reactivate the latent resources laying fallow in the great expanses of empty, abandoned space?  They would repopulate.  They would pioneer expeditions to these former lands and re-cultivate them.  They would explore the technology left behind and utilize the soaring intellect of their brains to duplicate past successes and invent new innovations to build their civilization back to its former glory...and eventually supersede it.  This is the core of human nature.  To progress.  To build.  To expand.

But in order to do this, the people would need the vision, the confidence and the work ethic required to venture outside of their shrinking, confining boxes and break the spiraling cycle of failure and despair in which they are caught.  They would need courage and cleverness and an iron will.  They would need to forget their fears and their suspicions, their greed and their short-term needs and desires in order to forge a new destiny for the greater good of humanity. 

Is there any doubt that this is not what would occur if this destiny were to befall our earth?  Then why does it have to be different for the sport of bowling?  The sport of bowling is a microcosm of our planet, beset with the same problems of injustice, resentment, political self-interest, greed and lack of foresight, but also filled with bright minds, energetic leaders and passionate denizens, all woven and locked together in a complex ecosystem that will survive or perish as one unit.  The good news for us is that the raw materials we need for rebuilding the sport are all around us...recreational bowlers, bowling awareness, and the pop-culture mind-space status that bowling still enjoys today.  But most importantly, we have our love and our knowledge of bowling and a desire to pass on the warmth and happiness it brings us, to others. 

It is eminently possible for the sport of bowling and every entity that shares in and is inextricably woven into the fabric of the industry to be regenerated and to recapture and surpass the glory of the bowling microcosm that exists as a small but important piece of our global community.  Working together and using our immense collective intelligence is not enough however.  We must remember that in order to repopulate, we must expand our horizons by spreading the message and the love of what we are doing to new people and new places...to markets that are not yet aware of our existence or simply don't consider us to be important.  It is our job to make them aware and to make our message important enough to fill them with an unquenchable desire to be a part of what we're doing. 

If we can do that, then the sport of bowling can provide us all with the abundance and joy that we all hoped to achieve when we first cast our lot in with it.  Let's do our part to make this happen now!  I, for one, am willing to do whatever it takes.