The longest day of the year

"Why candles?" objected Daisy frowning. She snapped them out with her fingers. "In two weeks it'll be the longest day of the year." She looked at us all radiantly. "Do you always watch for the longest day of the year and then miss it? I always watch for the longest day of the year and then miss it."

When the longest day of the year approaches, I always think about this passage from The Great Gatsby and think to myself 'I will not forget. It will come and I will remember it and say to myself "today is the longest day of the year." ' Yet I always forget. I did this year, just as I have ever year since I read this book in high school.

I really like these few lines from The Great Gatsby because they give Daisy a little substance. Readers often interpret her as flitty and ignorant and clueless. Sometimes she is those things, but so is everyone. Sometimes Daisy is also very intelligent. Everyone forgets the longest day of the year. Just because Daisy forgets, that doesn't make her any different than anyone else.

I have not read the book for a few years and so can't say much more about the subject. But I still think about it every year, at least once a year, when the longest day of the year approaches and then passes without me having remembered to remember it.