There is a clear religious undertone going on in this song. I think Terressa is the name of the god that this community all loves so much, as it is reitterated over again. At first you get the idea that because this disaster is destroying these people, it is a message of religious faith being worthless, because your God won't stop such a terrible thing. But, if they never worshipped Teressa, they would not have built the steeple, and without the steeple, all would have parished in the flood instead of half. In the end though, it is the same message from "They took a vote." The natural cycle of life, that some things have to die so that others can live on. Humanity being compared to the life of a fire. A fire literally burns itself alive until it has used up all its fuel, and then ceases to exist, but if it does not burn it will never exist in the first place. "All fires have to burn alive to live."
There is a clear religious undertone going on in this song. I think Terressa is the name of the god that this community all loves so much, as it is reitterated over again. At first you get the idea that because this disaster is destroying these people, it is a message of religious faith being worthless, because your God won't stop such a terrible thing. But, if they never worshipped Teressa, they would not have built the steeple, and without the steeple, all would have parished in the flood instead of half. In the end though, it is the same message from "They took a vote." The natural cycle of life, that some things have to die so that others can live on. Humanity being compared to the life of a fire. A fire literally burns itself alive until it has used up all its fuel, and then ceases to exist, but if it does not burn it will never exist in the first place. "All fires have to burn alive to live."