In all of the celebrations and ceremonies IMHO you would not have known that the VP had any health issues a great tribute to him and his loving family.Snugs, CNN (domestically) has run a bio of the VP. It was pretty good, and I learned some things about him I hadn't known before.
As we know, he met and fell in love with Lynne while still in high school. What I didn't know was that someone helped him get into Yale, but in his heart it wasn't something he wanted to do. He felt out of place at Yale. He missed Wyoming and Lynne, and his grades suffered. He was kicked out eventually, and went back to Wyoming. Between the ages of about 19 and 22, he lived a bit of a wild life. He smoked and drank heavily, and kicked around meaningless jobs. For awhile, he was a lineman (fixing power lines) for the local power company.
At least as the CNN bio tells it, Lynne issued an ultimatim. It was either his wild lifestyle or her. He decided he lover her too much to lose her. So he enrolled in the University of Wyoming, took some political science courses, decided he loved politics, and the rest is history.
Apparently, he didn't quit smoking, eventually getting up to three packs a day. It is believed that, plus stress and poor diet, are what caused his first heart attack.
So it seems both our President and Vice President went through a period of sowing their wild oats before the women in their lives straightened them out.
Sounds a fairly good bio.
It is the Yale thing that interests me I know that somehow he managed to get into Yale how I am not certain. I had read that he was not happy at Yale and that was where he started to mix with the wrong crowd was not working like he should and grades suffered. I believe this went on over about 18 month to 2 year period semi dropping out them somehow returning to Yale how this was possible I do not know maybe the programme shed more light on that.
I wonder if anyone else has any other details of his time at Yale I would imagine it is a very fascinating story as he himself jokes about the fact that he dropped out failed there but the President graduated.
I would imagine what you said would be very true that he felt out of place at Yale, missed Wyoming and Lynne.
I had heard the bit about him living a bit of a wild life even upon returning to WY he has referred to it albeit of recent times obliquely and of course this is when he got his 2 drink driving convictions. I think the lineman (fixing power lines) job in a way he is proud of it and certainly is good for his political speeches showing that he has an appreciation of how ordinary people make a living and how they think etc he of course used this extensively in the recent election campaign.
I have always taken the comment regarding Lynne issuing an ultimatum with a pinch of salt he does not strike me as a man who takes kindly to that sort of threat. IMHO he does and probably has back to his teens thought the world of Lynne and would do anything for her but I would think that it would have to come from him not because he was given an ultimatum. I would think more likely what he has said in interviews is more the case he realised his life was going nowhere unless he did something positive he was going down the wrong road with no way back and of course not said publicly be he would realise that entailed either taking Lynne down that path or loosing her and I would think neither of which he wanted to happen so was a major if not the sole reason he sorted himself out.
I have often wondered why he went to Yale in the first place it strikes me that he would never have fitted in their I have wondered though if it was to do with funds. I believe that his background whilst not poor and some would say comfortable was not privileged and certainly for those times not an automatic background to get a University education maybe he could get scholarship or sponsorship to go to Yale but not to a more local and not so well known University I assume from what you said that was what the CNN bio was hinting.
Thankfully for the US and IMHO the rest of the world he did find his niche in politics and despite his dip into the commercial world that is where his heart is.
Stress relating to his heart condiition I have always felt contributed very slightly during the most stressful periods of his life he apparently seems free of health issues; the Gulf war, 9/11 etc which to me indicates he thrives on stress. IMHO diet which I think is something he will always struggle with and more importantly genetics is the major factor not helped by smoking, one only hopes that he does not get tempted by that habit anymore but knowing a smoker very well I fully realise that not everyone finds it possible to completely give up especially in certain social situations.
The VP and the President lived real lives where unfortunately one does get tempted but the real test and shows your strength of character is to step away from what you doing and change and this is what these 2 great men did - God Bless them and keep them safe and well.