When Bach is a Battle Cry

She cradles the dark wood between her knees and bends low over the neck. The bow in her hand coaxes notes from the strings and the complex beauty of a Back concerto fills the air.

The headline “Victim of Sex-trafficking plays Bach Concertos” invades my brain. Why does that have to be there I wonder. Why not just,  “Woman Plays Bach Concerto”?

She isn’t just a victim of sex-trafficking. She isn’t just a woman who was beaten and brain-washed until she believed the lie that she was “just a walking sex organ”. She is so much more than that.

So why is it important that people know that she is a survivor of such a horrific trade?

Is it important?

In the end I conclude that it’s very important.

She is more than that dark place a decade ago. But that she once was there and now is here is a shout of triumph, a “SO THERE” to all those who told her, and made her believe, that beauty and music and Bach concertos were not for her.

She came back from that place, she plays music now.

We need to know that you can come back. The girls she works with who have been there too need to see that proven over and over again before they can believe it.

Those of us who are afraid that we could never come back from something like that if it happened to us need to know that she can. It gives us faith that maybe we could too.

But most of all, those who used and abused her, and those who believed when they saw her that she was less than they, just a broken woman who didn’t matter to them, they need to see that she always was all that she is now.

They need to understand that she is a person, a women, a player of music, a writer, an amazing mind and razor sharp wit, one who fights for justice. They need to understand that every girl, and boy, that they see on the street is just that, a girl, a boy, a person, never an object, never a play thing, never ever a possession.

I know it will take more than Bach to convince them. But I have faith that she, and I, and even you, will be able to, at least for some.

Photo by Thairms and used under the guidelines of a Creative Commons License.

all content © Carrien Blue