Cathedrals Of The Nelder Grove

I'm just tryna make a record
40 texts and nine missed calls
They stripped the paint from our cathedral
Found concrete cancer in the walls

Look, I don't care about the failings
'Cause I've got plenty of my own
But the inclination to conceal it
Well, that doesn't sound like church at all

I've heard Hell is out to get us
Some unrighteous grand assault
I could argue it's the devil
But I could make a case for God

The pharisee, the woke, the wayward
But it's just three different shades of pride
So like white blood cells protect a body
Perhaps, that's how God heals a bride

I don't know what to say, but that I cried

You know, I've sang before about sequoias
I guess we're more than just one song alike
But as I sit and mourn here in the garden
Indulge me, please, just one more time

We tower high above our brothers
We reign the sky, but for a time
Alas, we serve beneath the soil
Where our death just makes a way for life

We're here right now in the railroad fire of, of 2017
Where four years ago, um, in the Nelder Grove of Giant Sequoias
And, and right now we're standing in an area that burned at low intensity
Uh, the fire burned in a mix like all wildfires do
It was mostly low and moderate intensity
But there was a portion that burned at high intensity as well

And the interesting thing, and for me as an ecologist
The important thing is that in the low intensity fire areas
There is no giant sequoia reproduction, none
None from before the fire, none after the fire
Because what they need for that is high intensity fire

In other words, it's fire that's intense enough
That it actually will kill some of the mature giant sequoias
But what you get in the bargain is hundreds of times more giant sequoias

You can't change where you've been
But you have where you are
Every start has its end
But every end is a start