Cathedral

"A wink is the same as a nod to a blind man."

Cathedral explores the boundaries of discomfort between relationships. The story seems to hold an air of slight awkwardness throughout the entirety only due to Robert's blindness.  The story enters with a good bit of the wife's past marriage to an officer, her deep loneliness, and her beautiful friendship with Robert built over tapes.  The story though, is not about her.  In my eyes, it is about the learnings Robert and the narrator  gain from each other.  The narrator begins somewhat cold and ignorant of the blind man when he arrives.  His wife never recorded tapes for him.
Blind people can't smoke the narrator thought; of course they can smoke.  They have mouths just like everyone else.  They can't watch television; and of course they can do that too.  They just listen with their ears instead of their eyes.  The narrator just could't imagine or grasp the life of a blind man-until he sat down with Robert.
The colored television flicks on, nothing is on except a program about cathedrals.
Do you have any idea what a cathedral is?
The wife has fallen out of the picture at this point-the story has evolved into their relationship.  The narrator begins to call the blind man Robert; friendship is being built. Carver takes the ignorant, bigot narrator and turns him into a respectable man as the two sit on the carpet drawing a cathedral together.  It's beautiful progression.
Man needs to be happy with himself and not the monotony. Expand their boundaries and experiences with others.  A cathedral and a blind man can change even the smallest of situations.