“Empty Chairs at Empty Tables” is Marius’ solo after the battle. Sitting alone at the café, knowing he’s the only one to survive, other than Jean Valjean, he regrets and reminisces the loss of his friends. Everyone has troubling dreams. In “Protect Us from All Anxiety” on Ash Wednesday, I wrote about one of the anxiety-related dreams that I’ve had in various forms in prison. There’s so much stress here, both the stress of prison itself and the stress of being separated from the outside world. That separation causes a lot of pain for prisoners serving Long sentences. We witness the people we once knew slipping away. Fears of abandonment haunt many prisoners’ dreams. Even the toughest are often reduced to tears when faced with the reality that those they once loved are lost to them. Few relationships survive more than ten years of separation by prison walls
Songs with Banjo from Harold Hagler
