Selling Kidneys or Catastrophic Crayons?

This is most certainly not going to be easy. All I will have to do is convince "my father to [give] me a small loan of a million dollars"  and maybe sell a kidney, then I will definitely be able to do it. Loans? Oh, that's not such a big deal, I'll just spend half of my life paying off the debt and then spend the other half paying off my mortgage. But hey, at least I will have the biggest, greatest, most obnoxious and televised wedding the world has ever known!

What is our world coming to? 

When did our society decide that spending half a fortune on one event that lasts only a few hours was a good idea? 

Why did couples ever think that packing a church and reception with the closest members of your kin... and only 500 others that you barely know made a wedding personal? 

When did weddings involve over-the-top dresses that have more than five digits on the price tag and brides sobbing their hearts out five minutes before what is supposed to be the happiest moment of their lives all because their hair was not perfect or their makeup was slightly off of stupendous? 

What ever happened to happily ever after, folks? 

The truth: the happily-ever-after only comes after the tornado known as bridezilla whirlwinds down the isle, the sheepish fiancé, too terrified to give one opinion about the wedding, finally says "I do," and the whole ceremony and aftermath goes exactly according to plan, with every "I" dotted and every "T" crossed. Then and only then is the happily-ever-after given permission to begin by the neurotic, half-starved, possibly deranged, new Mrs. whatever the name is. 

Image provided by Mohd Hafizuddin Husin. 

Our society has made so many expectations that are blown way out of proportion when it comes to wedding ceremonies. Nowadays, celebrities are spending an unimaginable amount of money on a single day, inviting everyone they do not really know or care about, eating a cake that took weeks on end to bake but that will be shoved into a couples mouths for the best picture in the newspaper the following morning, and celebrating for a couple of hours an event that took months and months of endless planning to get practically perfect in every way. 

Image provided by Extra Medium. 

I believe the reasoning for couples to overdo their wedding celebrations stems from a very real issue of our culture today: the need for attention. If you look at the popular media sites currently in use, sites such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter all revolve around the likes and comments of friends and family, and even complete strangers, that applaud or praise a post. These comments and "thumbs-up's" give attention to the post's author, releasing this sense of approval and assurance in regards to the post. In the same way, I find that some couples desire a grand, ostentatious wedding celebration because they believe they have something to prove to others. They think they need to "go big or go home" so as to gain approval of their marriage, making sure everything is absolutely perfect as if one single flower in the wrong position will doom their marital reputation for the rest of their days, or at least until the divorce papers are signed. This constant need for attention and assurance of life decisions is one that drives our culture but unfortunately can also drive us to the brink of bankruptcy.

Now let's switch gears to a better scene: an art museum. Imagine you are walking through an amazing hallway with high ceilings, crown molding, tile floors, numerous paintings by Monet, Manet, Renoir, and maybe even Van Gogh. These paintings are gorgeously completed with amazing brushwork, vibrant color schemes, thought-provoking tales that maybe make you wonder about the big questions of life or that make you simply say, "Wow. That is one awesome sunflower." 

This picture was provided by tonynetone. 

Out of the corner of your eye, you see a connecting hallway that leads to the modern art portion of the museum. At first, your mind goes into a tailspin. "Who let a child color scribbles all over these canvases?!" you think to yourself. "Where is the culprit who disgraced these masterpieces? Why is security not streaming through the museum right now?" 

For a moment, steam seems to come out of your ears, your face is turning beet red, your heart rate is elevated. Then you look around the room. The security guards are present but have not a smudge of worry on their faces. All of the squirrelly children are being held in death grips by their parents, not running amuck with their art utensils joyfully reeking havoc in the modern art wing. 

You look up at the paintings hanging in this room, and you take a closer gander. 

"Oh no. This cannot be right. Where is the art? Where is the meaning? What is happening to us?"

In one last ditch effort to avoid reality, you take one second to think that maybe the artwork was stolen in an extravagant heist that not even Houdini could have ever pulled off. 

You look at the paintings, heart-broken and defeated, only to realize that this piece of art is a plane canvas of white with some pencil markings and an attempt at writing the word "vengeance" in red crayon with the penmanship of an elementary schooler. Oh, and you can't forget to mention that there is a rhino horn-looking thing at the bottom, too. The rhino horn definitely makes the entire picture. 

This image provided by Renaud Camus. 

The only thought that comes to your head: "Man I picked the wrong career. I made something in my third grade art class that was a spitting image of this piece. Who would've ever thought that I was an art prodigy?" 

Since when has our understanding of art included the scribblings of pencil and crayon on a blank canvas with words originally misspelled and letters squeezed between others to spell properly? Since when has our society excepted paintings of three clouds, each a different color with three names written in chicken scrawl above them? 

This image provided by Mirandala. 

Our world has seen gorgeous masterpieces of Jesus, the last supper, a woman that never smiles, and even a starry night. When exactly and why did our perceptions of art change so drastically? This sad adjustment in the art world could very reasonable be due to how the people of our society choose to express their originality. A common trend in today's world seems to be that individuals want to blaze their own trail, start a new fad, be the first person to ever do this or the first person to ever do that. What sometimes results from this uniqueness that everyone seems to strive for is a succession of "uniqueness" that diminishes the essence of previous trends and skills. Though this is pure speculation, as I have never met any of my favorite artists due to the slight issue that they are all currently diseased, I am sure painters such as Monet, Manet, Renoir, and Van Gogh thought their artwork was passion, something they enjoyed completing not particularly a chore to done to prove a point to society that their work is the newest and most individualistic art of the time. Our culture has emphasized the need for everyone to be their own person, their own version of themselves, and while this perspective is very inspirational in some aspects, I believe many also choose to use this encouragement as an excuse to hide behind a mask, one that makes them stand out in a crowd for who they are not instead of who they truly are. 

The paradigm shift of weddings changing from humble and honest celebrations of true love to never ending bills and over-exaggeration and art changing from thought-provoking, jaw dropping interpretations of the real world to scribbles on a white canvas show immeasurable changes, for the worst in my opinion, in both the field of marriage and art. What will our world choose to turn upside-down next?