Thanks for the link.  I loved this dense little story.  Of course, as a Catholic priest, the subject was of interest to me.

1.  I agree with russhuntley

2.  I agree more or less with russhuntley, again!  Except maybe purpúrea as royalty.  I want to know the bonus point answers for Spanish associations!!!

3.  I certainly could be way off, but I would say that the contrasts seemed to signify the differences between Western and Eastern thought:  the contrast between the different understandings of a personal deity of revelation, and an impersonal existence of divinity.  The difference between a deity who trancends creation and the idea of deity comprised of all that is good in existence.  Also, there is also a difference between limited beings of ancient pagans and the infinite being of the Greek philosophical, Ancient Israelite, Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions.

4.  I believe there is a hard-wired need for us to know something beyond ourselves... yet feel connected at the same time!  So the flies seek to know a god like themselves.  

5.  I loved the ending.  I certainly don't think fly-heaven is any more ridiculous than fat babies playing harps.  When speaking of such things, it is almost completely metaphorical.

I would love to hear others' thoughts as well.
(...and one of these days I'll work up the nerve to write in Spanish!) 

Thankfully I was also using SpanishPod to warm up for the trip!

Russ, I'm glad to hear some of the more advanced folks mention children's books--my teacher just gave me "El Principito".  Now I don't feel nearly as silly reading it!

I guess I'll land on my point:  I don't know how SP could have been more welcoming, I'm just a wimp!  :-)  

I hope to return and help some newbies, too.

Sé que estoy aprendiendo un poco cuando entiendo chistes en otra idioma.

It may be a bit challenging, but stick with the same lesson again and again.  It is a good thing that we are presented with native speakers at normal speeds right from the start.

Especially if you listen to the dialogue several times, you begin to find yourself picking it up.  One of my favorite newbie dialogues is "¡Qué caro!", even though the saleswoman rattles off the last line of 5 or 6 words in about 3 syllables...  After several listens, my very untrained ear began to pick all it up.

This is a tremendous asset to learning, for me.  There are plenty of resources that give you audio snippets read veeeeeery sssslowwwwwwly, but I have found that to be a greater pain than anything.

Sólo un pocito del español.

Tal vez, si yo aprendiere español, el latín resultaré muy fácil.

¿Cómo celebran Viernes Santo?

Estoy ayunando y rogaré a Dios.
¡Tengo que ir a la iglesia, porque soy el cura!

¡Dios los bendiga a Uds.!

I am fasting, and will pray to God.  I have to go to Church, because I'm the priest!  May God bless you all!