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