The Sphinx Breaks its Silence

--Hey, did you hear, the Sphinx finally spoke?

--You're kidding. After all these centuries?

--After all these centuries.  Really.

--Nothing but sand and silence for all those years., and then he speaks.  Amazing!

--Yeah, but what's so amazing he spoke only one sentence. Pondering all that time 'til he 

    boiled it down. 

--So what'd he say?

--Six little words:  All things ordered, all things permitted.

--That's it?  My gosh, what does that mean?

--Don't you get it?  If it's ordered OK it's OK to do it.

--Simple as that?

--Simple as that.  It's the same as saying What's disordered is forbidden.

--That sounds more Catholic.

-- It's all Catholic. What'd St. Augustine say?   Love God and do what you want.

--Yeah, I get it.  Like any father and his son.  When the son wants what the father wants, the

   father wants what the son wants. 

--Exactly! Therein lies the whole of our freedom,  in a six-word nutshell.

--So will he  speak again, you think?

--What's more to say?  It says  it all:   All things ordered, all things permitted.