This Assignment Sucks!

The Narrator wasn't looking forward to the visit of the blind man because the narrator had been sucked up into his daily routine and didn't like any variations on it. This is because he felt secure in his routine, like he had some semblance of control, but he clearly wasn't truly happy in it as evidenced by his habitual use of marijuana to distract himself. 

The wife's poetry and attempted suicide are both indicators of her need for emotional connection with other people. She didn't get this from her past life with the officer due to the constant moving, hence the suicide attempt. In this sense, the face-touching was her being seen by the blind man. They shared an emotional connection in that moment -- he was really trying to know and understand her better. 

To receive your wife's friend is to love your wife. I use "wife" only as an example; it can be interchanged with any other person and remain true. You are opening your home to this stranger not because you want to, but because your wife wants to and you are willing to make that sacrifice for her. 

Robert seems to have seen Beulah's intentions, her character, and her loving and caring heart. Our misguided narrator, however, cannot get past her race. To see someone is to cast aside predisposed notions and look at the way someone thinks, their intentions, their desires, and their character. To be seen, obviously, is to have someone see these things in you, and it is a validating experience indeed if it is a positive one. 

The narrator smokes pot to distract himself from his monotonous and un-fulfilling daily routine. This reveals his lack of desire, or lack of realization of his desires. He's going through life almost like a horse with blinders on. The blind man is less enthusiastic about pot because he sees it for what it really is: an impediment. He knows that pot will blur his "sight" if used overtime. He knows that it is something dangerous, something that can become one's focus and will distract from his relatively fulfilling life. This is why he's fine with doing it once, but overall unenthusiastic. 

People put more effort into the more important aspects of their lives. For example, we have enormous football stadiums these days and Sunday has become, for many, and day of football and not the Sabbath. This applies to churches as well: back when they were the centerpieces of daily life, they were grand and beautiful. Many are still grand and beautiful, but nowhere near the scale of what they used to be because church has dropped to the bottom of our societal to-do list. 

The narrator has difficulty describing a cathedral because he's never wondered about it. He just goes through the motions of life, not stopping to examine the spider webs. When he closes his eyes, he can finally fully understand where the blind man is coming from. He sees a new point of view for the first time in his life, most likely. He understands that the elimination of sight has given him a tabula rasa upon which he can truly wonder about things.