Exit the Cave
Embracing a Life of Courage, Creativity, and Radical Imagination
by Blaine Hogan
Pub Date 08 Nov 2022
Baker Books
Christian

Baker Books and Netgalley have provided me with a copy of Exit the Cave for review:



Redefine your creativity, and create a life that matters:




Occasionally, the greatest gift you can receive is for your life to fall apart. Having spent years trapped in a painful cycle fueled by past abuse and ongoing addiction, actor, artist, and director Blaine Hogan finally reached his breaking point. When Blaine was unable to hide behind the veneer of success or find comfort in the shadows of compulsion, he was forced to examine the story his life was telling and realize he had lost his way.




Taking a major life detour in search of hope, he discovered that facing his past was the key to unlocking a new kind of creativity. In Exit the Cave, Blaine explores how our relationship with our past influences how we imagine the future and live in the present. The author invites you to take up the practices of radical imagination and real creativity so that you may be able to tell your life's story in a more meaningful way.




A richer, more imaginative, and meaningful life is waiting just outside the cave for anyone who has ever been stuck, addicted, ashamed, dissatisfied, or lost.


I give Exit the Cave five out of five stars!


Happy Reading!

Each of us has our own cave. It is a place where we could feel comfortable, relaxed, and honest with ourselves. For author Blaine Hogan, his cave is more than that. It is about him boldly taking a step out of the cave of addiction, depression, self-pity, and encountering health issues among his loved ones. He shares about past broken relationships, broken marriages, and emotional struggles. As an actor, he toggles from the highs of success to the lows of addiction. He shares his ups and downs through personal stories told with brutal honesty. Some of his most painful episodes were about the hurts he had inflicted on others and the resultant turmoil that tormented him emotionally and spiritually. He thought singing can help him feel better but any positive vibes didn't last. He shares about his constant travels because of his gigs. His search for peace continues with his foray into theological education in Seattle. While disappointed with the city and the school for various reasons, he soon finds inspiration in the stories of Hagar and Sarah. He would be challenged by two simple questions:
1) Where have you come from?
2) Where are you going?

These two questions would gradually help sprout other questions that not only probe his inner self and relationships but also his purpose in life. The bulk of this book deals with the way he answers these two questions. On the question of where he came from, Hogan shares honestly about his past, celebrating the highs as well as admitting the lows. The second question about where he is going deals with his desire to move forward from his checkered past. His journey in search of healing does not come easy. He summarizes his life with "four straight lines" or more specifically, our imperfect efforts to draw four perfectly straight lines. In a throwback to life in general, he shows us that we ought not be chained by our imperfections. Spirituality is essentially about not giving up in spite of our imperfect drawings of life. This is such a liberating thing to learn.

My Thoughts
==============
Hogan shows us that it is entirely possible, even liberating to just live and let live. Don't be too anxious about having the perfect results that many of us crave. As long as we are true to ourselves, and as long as we trust God to lead the way, we should always do our best and let God handle the rest. Why should anyone read this book? Let me give three reasons.

First, it is an honest assessment of how broken this world is. Christians are in the world but not of the world. It is not true that Christians no longer have any problems once they believe in Jesus. In fact, faith opens us up to courageously face up to our challenges in life. Hogan's stories can be a way to inspire us not to be bogged down by our past but to remember that in Christ, we are free to get up every time we fall. Second, this book reads like a memoir but is more like a collection of personal stories. This collection shows us the journey of a man in search of healing and meaning. If we are honest with ourselves, we all need to make such journeys too, albeit in different specifics. In fact, when we learn to tell our stories, we get a better sense of where we have gone and where we ought to be going. Hogan's journey through the two fundamental questions should inspire us to do the same. Finally, it is always a good thing to take stock of our lives through reflections and remembering of our past. That way, we learn from past mistakes. We remember the good and bad times. We do not forget the lessons learned. Failure is often thought to be the seed of success. Through that process, we become better people as we grow in wisdom. May this book inspire us in unique ways that speak to us.

Rating: 4 stars of 5.

conrade
This book has been provided courtesy of Baker Books and NetGalley without requiring a positive review. All opinions offered above are mine unless otherwise stated or implied.

I was given a copy by NetGalley to give my honest review. This was a wonderful book. Entertainer Blaine Hogan's life was falling apart. So much so he hit rock bottom and everything was falling apart. His relationships, faith, career were all in trouble which left him floundering. However, he started to rebuild his life paying careful attention to the big picture. I became a rooting section for him as he pulled the reader into his life. A book of hope and inspiration with a comedic flair.

From the very beginning this book pulled me in! I laughed hysterically at the opening story of Blaine at a hotel and his pre-conference experience! Blaine bears his struggles throughout his life in a honest and courageous way! I love it that he come full circle at the end! Using the trauma of his life to help others Exit The Cave!

Whether you have experienced abuse or know someone who has this book helps to understand the murky waters of trauma and encourages the reader to make a difference!

One side note though is that there should be a trigger warning. I could definitely see how this might cause some struggles for those who have been experienced similar trauma!

Here is a memoir for those of us who have ever been stuck, addicted, ashamed, discontented, or lost. Yep, I qualify. In this book, take courage as Blaine Hogan in humor and true emotion shares a life that can be richer, more whole, imaginative, and meaningful and it’s just, outside the cave.

Young Blaine was stuck in the painful cycle of past abuse and ongoing addiction, then as an actor and artist, he received, unknown to him at the time, a life changing gift… his life fell apart.

Hiding behind his success and what he perceived as comfort in his addiction he recognized it no longer worked for him. Realizing he hadn't lost God, rather he was the one who moved away and as a result, he lost his own self. .

Desperate, he gave up the career he was building and took a major life detour where he discovered that facing his past was the key to unlocking a new kind of true living.

In this exposed story of his young life, Blaine shares the stories that shaped him guided by God's greater story for living in a complicated world.
Through his own personal revelations and insightful gleanings, he invites you to take up some seemingly radical practices and some not so, and be creative so you can tell a better story with your own life.

I highly recommend this well written and very readable memoir where the author is willing to expose his personal transgressions and triumphs to help others. I found his story to be very applicable to my own life even though my situation is quite different in the details

P LA INEH was very interesting how he came to deal with his past. You had a very trouble in childhood. His father was an alcoholic and his mother said kills. He acted because it helped him cope with things but he could never get really close to people He had problems because you don't find out why in the book you're supposed as a point of the The pain is managed to suffer. He was molested as a boy with other boys. He also finds out his father was addicted to p*** which he started on that path as well. He read this book called the cave by Pluto and he could really relate to that because that's how it felt. He had trouble holding on to relationships. He then went to the church called Mars to Become a Person who Who leads in church. This place seemed like for 2 years merely helping dress his problems. He wasn't an actor as well but he wanted to give this up because he had very destructive pattern. He hoped this was good because he could travel around in 2 things. You had a girlfriend named Margaret but their relationship was sometimes very rocky. You find out how he hoped for all these problems and he came out ahead.

I want to thank Blaine and his team for the opportunity to read an advance copy of this book. I also want to thank NetGalley for the Kindle version of Exit The Cave.

I have followed Blaine's journey via social media for many years. From his time in Prison Break and other shows to his work as a creative director for one of the most influential churches in America, Blaine has been a long-distance roll model for the creative endeavors in my life.

This book was a beautiful and honest exploration of the power that our story can have on our lives and the lives of people who meet along the way. As a father, husband, church employee, and a follower of Jesus I felt known in a way that most writers could not describe. Blaine's honesty about his own pain and loss was an incredible canvas for a narrative that reaches far beyond his own experiences and into that place of radical transformation.

I found myself cheering for him and weeping with him. As I sat this book down (or really, I turned off my Kindle) I knew I would not soon forget what I just experienced. I have listened to numerous talks and monologues from Hogan over the years and this book felt like he was just speaking right to me.

If you work in any "creative" field, then you need to read this book. If you have trauma from your past (I think that includes pretty much everyone) then you need to read this book. Blaine pulls back the layers of perfectionism and performance that overshadow much of church culture and provides a refreshing drink from the well of grace.

Blaine does a great job in taking the reader along on his journey of learning that one's past does not define their future AND present if they CHOOSE to rewrite their story in a way that allows them to foster hope and faith in their future's possibilities.