RockSlider wrote:http://www.LDS.org/new-era/1971/12/stick-pulling-newly-revived-game-of-the-1840s?lang=eng
Your reference is to 1842, bcspace's was to 1828.
Do you think Joseph Smith might have been smaller and weaker in 1828 than he was in 1842, some 14 years later?
I grew up in a poor ranching/farming community. We worked with pitch forks, shovels and threw hay bales around with our bare hands.
We came in all shapes and sizes and with different levels of bodily strength, and those shapes, sizes and strengths could change over time, particularly in the shift from boyhood to manhood. That pubescent shift could some at different times for different guys.
For all anyone knows, Joseph Smith could have been a 90 lb weakling when he received the plates.
I didn't start to gain body mass until I was well into my late 20's, damnit
I'll leave it to a physiologist to compare stick pulling (some leg strength needed for sure but probably more of an upper body sports) with running through the forest with metal plates (upper body strength needed for sure but a lot of leg strength needed to, especially if you are missing a bone in one of your legs and have a limp.)
Two Joseph myths to examine closely:
1. Joseph Smith did not have the practical educational skills to have dictated the Book of Mormon
2. Joseph Smith was strong enough to run a distance with very heavy metal plates.
lulu - mythicly