Lying at the shore of the Cosmos, I felt the flesh merge with the earth and the soul with the sky. My arteries were the roots, and my risen hands were constellations. It was me, it was the world. The world and I were one: a supernova and a proton, one, a comet and a breeze, only one, a spiral galaxy and an ear of corn, one, a black hole and a new child born to this world, only one.

Our courses intersect, our dreams are entangled, and they speak of here and now as something unique, that we must, as an imperative, seize.

Each time we walk the ground, one foot after the other, each time we touch a rock golden by the dawn’s sun, each time we interact with each other, we are exploring the Universe.

Our combined visions, experiences and knowledge are the fulcrum of a lever with an astounding stoutness.

Here. Now. You. Me. We. One.

At the prow of the whole, sailing a sea of discovery, amazement and reunion.

Billions of years separate us from the beginning of all things. In that same beginning, you, I, every living creature, everything that is, started its wade, its pilgrimage through existence.

We find ourselves, in this present time, in this present space, sharing a common opportunity to consciously share the wonders of this journey through the Universe. We are, at the same time, those with the power to generate questions and to seek the answers. We are the whole on a quest for its own reason. The Universe has, in its infinite sequence of events, generated its own awareness and we, as life, as percipient life, are at the threshold of the Incredible.

We shall cross it, dare to go the distance. Assume the distance. Be the distance.

There, somewhere in between the lines of space and time, is something undefined that looks at us in the eyes, questions us and entices us to launch ourselves towards a new adventure, a permanent challenge, permanent restlessness, permanent joy.

It is in there, in between those lines, that we fulfill ourselves, that we recognize ourselves as a star, as the smell of grass, a particle, a watchful finch, a moon, a river’s meander, a galaxy, as the skin we touch, as a new world.

Whatever that path may be, it will be, one way or the other, towards home.

As, in the remoteness of time, we became bipedal beings who started roaming the land in search of the proper sites where we could thrive, we are now taking that pursuance a little farther.

Nowadays, hot Jupiters and other almost unclassifiable sorts of exoplanets are our new deserts, our new abysses, but…somewhere there, in the distance, a new verdant valley awaits us.

What we are doing here, peering at the stars, is the equivalent to our long march along the ridges of the Earth, on a vital scout for survival.

We are, once more, picking up the staff. We are, once more, nomads, stellar nomads.

We are clearing the way for the Homo Viator.

With Kepler, blinds have been opened for Mankind, child of the galaxy, to look beyond our common cradle and to discover that there are other Earths with other Suns nurturing them. Kepler opened its eyes in the direction of the stars and, as an unavoidable, desired consequence, it will reveal to us the beacons in the horizon, the beacons in between the Swan and the Lyre signaling a new era.

From here on, throughout the Milky Way, the planets like our beloved Terra are ours to sight, to discover, to learn about and, when time dictates it, to venture toward.

The new worlds are there, in the distance, waiting for us. What unimagined islands, continents, other tribes await us? We simply don’t know. Until now all we could do was to think, to dream, to hope.

But we have decided to send a scout and others will follow. This will change our knowledge in such a profound way that nothing will be the same after its return.

What will they see? What will they retrieve?

Now, where dragons await us, can there be an Eden?

Now, where silence rules, can there be voices?

Now, where we can only see the distant sparkling, can there be life?

The answer to these questions is a long journey that we have committed to and in which Kepler plays a vital role.

There is a whole new adventure ahead.

What can there be beyond the curve in the path -- among the stars where we reflect on our possible tomorrow as a species? Where will this take us? No one knows. No one can imagine. But Kepler is sailing towards it, towards the horizon, towards the other shore.

We have waited long for a decisive, historical moment. The moment when Kepler saw its cover removed and captured its first light was the day Mankind opened its eyes to an upcoming reality: that Earth is a cradle among cradles.

From the tribe’s bonfire to the conscience of our planet as a whole and from here to the amazing confirmation that this little corner of the Universe may be populated with myriads of other Earths, Kepler will help us connect the dots that have been, until now, invisible in the distance, in the territories of dream and imagination, of theory and fiction.

From here on what awaits us is a whole new territory, a whole new quest. From Kepler and others’ results a new generation will work on new approaches that will permit us to enrich our knowledge about these distant worlds -- in different areas like improved imaging techniques, communications, news ways of beating the immense distance, and art in all its forms of expression… a generation working together, finding new ways to walk an incoming new path. A global goal may be right ahead of us. Kepler may mark the border between a Solar Mankind and a Galactic Mankind.

Rising, thundering, Kepler unleashed the first chapter of the Book of Other Earths. Aiming at the distant stars, it became the eyes of the human tribe seeking their relatives lost since the beginning of all things. The Universe itself will get smaller. We will gain a whole new sense of space, and if we, in a remote past, guided our steps by the Milky Way lights, now it is time to look in the galaxy itself for a new pilgrimage.

Tonight, here, on a yet solitary Earth, staring at the stars, we have the privilege of witnessing Kepler on its quest to reduce solitude to an obsolete concept. Kepler and the ones after it, will make us leave the dark of the cave and contemplate, in awe, the legion of worlds, like our own, awaiting us on the outside.

Kepler, with its eyes on the worlds beyond worlds, will turn the dreams of yesterday into reality, the lands of myth will transport themselves into the realms of science and, when that happens, Mankind will assume the challenge of embarking on a truly astounding quest to know more about these distant lands and to create the conditions that will allow its inquisitive nature to spread beyond the solar system.
We have now, worldwide, the Humans capable of taking the next step, capable of raising the banner of Adventure. We are ready for what Kepler and other missions have to reveal to us. We are ready to embark.

We are all Discoverers, now sitting at the sand, contemplating the sea, waiting for the echo of the distant shore of a whole New World.

One day, from the shores of a new world, we'll gaze at the sea that took us there. And its waves will be stars.