We’re very good at remembering peaks—the moments that rise above everything else and become shorthand for an entire career or life.
What we’re less practiced at noticing is what came before and after: the repetition, the adaptability, the long arc of work that doesn’t announce itself as loudly but often means more over time.
That tension between peaks and longevity has been on my mind lately, especially as I revisited the intertwined careers of Mary Tyler Moore, Valerie Harper, and Cloris Leachman. Three women who began in the same creative orbit, but whose relationships with time—and legacy—unfolded in very different ways.
That reflection became my latest long-form essay, “The Peaks We Remember and the Lives We Forget.”
It’s less about television than it is about how we measure success, how time reshapes meaning, and why the shape of a life’s work matters more than its most visible moment.
You can read the full essay now on Medium.
I’ll also be sharing the complete piece to my email subscribers. If you’d like to read it there (without the Medium paywall) and get my weekly email – The Lantern – delivered directly, you can sign up below.
