Pillow Fight

Why did I not attend this year's pillow fight, part of a worldwide event? I go every year to observe because that is what I do. But this year I made both an aesthetic and ethical decision not to be there.
Let me say that Saturday morning I spent two hours writing to prompts with my group. Creatively, I felt I was below my standards and that feeling of disappointment carried over into the PM. I told myself I needed to recoup my self esteem by going home and writing a high quality poem. Instead, I took a nap. When I awoke it was nearing 230pm, a half hour before the pillows were to be unleashed.
I was frankly upset because they changed venues from Union Square Park to Washington Square Park, less than a half mile away. But WSP is more associated with artistic aspirations, while USP is more politically oriented, and, thus, more appropriate for what I feel is both a political and psychological battle. Pounding strangers with pillows is the non lethal version of our economic system. No one cares were the pillow lands as long as you deliver more blows than the other guy. Symbolically, this needs to be at USP. Especially when you have innocent subway riders emerging into chaos, like small investors.
Aesthetically, the authorities decided to eliminate feathered pillows because of the clean up costs. That's the official explanation. I think feathers engender sensuality, leading to oodles of after fight groping and illicit coupling in front of Whole Foods. Seriously, without feathers, there is overwhelming blandness and inconclusiveness in pillow bashing. Feathers signify all that is lost as we struggle on, but when the feathers drift away, metaphorically, they represent memories of hardship, and a clearer sky/clearer vision of the future.
Plus women get to hit back with impunity. Return this event to its origins. Make it purposeful again. There are no tiny pillows, only tiny minds.