The Longest Night and Shortest Day

Daisy Fay Buchanan complains that she always waits for the longest day of the year and then misses it. It is an emblematic theme of the book, The Great Gatsby. I mean, everyone in that book is waiting for the longest day of the year and then missing it. The longest day of the year—that twenty four hour period which contains the most daylight; in the mythology the day with the most opportunity to make hay while the sun shines. Every character in the novel seems to miss it! It is the tragedy of The Great Gatsby, if The Great Gatsby might be said to have a tragedy at all.

I say this now because the shortest day of the year is upon us, and I am wondering if this event isn’t actually something we would all rather miss. On this day, we will awake in the dark, go to work in the dark, retire to sleep in the dark, and awaken again in the dark. When I run tomorrow morning with Gary in sub-zero weather, we must wear head gear to light our way, so to speak. Though in our conversation, Gary and I do question the wisdom of us pilgrims who feel obliged to venture out on this longest night of the year when so many good mammals are hibernating happily and sleeping soundly. “Why are we out here?” Gary and I wonder. And why every year at this time?! I wonder why, indeed, we even refer to it as day—why not just say that for this time period, at least, we exist literally in the dark. Even thankfully so!

Of course, the holidays of the season insist on bringing lighted candles and forest green into the household as if to create the daylight-outdoors, indoors. I don’t think very many of us get really fooled. I think many of us wait for the longest day of the year on this shortest day.