Raymond Carver's Cathedral

Recently re-read Cathedral by Raymond Carver, which can be read here, and found the short story even more moving than the first time. Why? You may ask. Well, because it is simply brilliant.
First of all, short stories are meant to express an idea in a linear matter, every word is precisely located so as to lead to the realization and the communication of this idea.
This is done masterfully in this short story. To start off, we have a first-person narrator explaining how his wife's blind friend is coming to visit, his antagonistic feelings towards this fact and the friendship between his wife and the blind man is evident, we also get from the narrator that his marriage is wavering on the brink of disintegration.
As the story progresses, the narrator opens up to the blind man. It is interesting how they both connect: after copious amounts of alcohol and a joint later they both find themselves watching a show on cathedrals. The blind man, having never seen a cathedral, asks for a description. It is from this point on that the essence of the story is revealed, the core. The narrator describes the cathedral, and explains how in the "olden days man built cathedrals because they wanted to be close to God" since its spires reach up, up, up into the sky, as if reaching out. From here the narrator discloses his unbelief, concluding that it is because he finds it hard to believe. After the description of the cathedrals the blind man asks the narrator to bring a pen and paper so as to draw a cathedral and better "see". The narrator does as asked and begins drawing, the blind man holding his hand as he draws. The blind man then requests for the narrator to close his eyes. He does and what is revealed to him is far greater than what he saw.
This short story is wonderful in that it explores the undertones of the spiritual essence of man, why is man despairing? What makes man despair? What allows him to have purpose? Live fulfilled? The narrator is despairing man and in my subjective judgment the blind man doesn't have the answers, this is not what is discovered at the end, rather what is revealed to the narrator is his life as it truly is, whether it is his necessity to be thankful or to mend the broken pieces is debatable just as what is revealed. The exploration undergone in this story brings to light that the truth is not necessarily for those that "see" with their eyes but for those that "see" with their heart/soul/spirit.
This story is simple yet this simplicity hides a raw and haunting quality that echos beyond the words.