“In two weeks it’ll be the longest day in the year… Do you always watch for the longest day of the year and then miss it? I always watch for the longest day in the year and then miss it.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, Ch. 1

Well. I didn’t miss it. Happy Longest Day of the Year.

In a strange bit of synchronicity, I have a particular connection to Fitzgerald. My wife and I were married at a tiny church in Maryland, and Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda are buried in the churchyard. After the wedding mass, many of our guests made a short pilgrimage to see their grave.

It made for some unusual wedding pictures.

Fitzgerald was a rather indifferent Catholic, but there are lots of his family buried in that small cemetery, including his daughter, Scottie. It’s a restful sort of place, despite being beside the intersections of two busy thoroughfares. The grave is marked by this celebrated quote from the end of Fitzgerald’s most famous book, “The Great Gatsby”:

“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”

Photo: by Ron Williams