Emerson's Sailboat

The transcendent for Emerson, was the ability to move from the close to the distant. The zigzag of a boat, when seen from a great distance, becomes a straight line. This is to see the greater truth of that boats direction. So the world, a seeming mess of complexity, when transcended, can be seen in its clarity. And so, while Emerson was something of a sage, his theories are of no use to someone trapped on that boat that zigs and zags and carries the one this someone loves toward destruction.