Maybe you deserved it. And you didn't really defend yourself. You overstepped your bounds, and well, it was not well-received, and the crowd decided you needed to be punished, that you needed to learn a lesson.
So, you endured a very public beatdown in front of folks you really love and admire.
Maybe you were well-intentioned, but it wasn't perceived that way. In retrospect, you realize you were quite self-righteous and you were fighting someone else's battle, and this positioned you to come across like some puffed up moral crusader. Not your usual stance.
You didn't fight back. You didn't get angry. You didn't lash back. You sat down and took the punishment. Total surrender.
Afterwards you felt a bit surly, wounded, down, deflated. But at the same time, you were surprised that you found a bit of inner strength. You took a licking, and kept on ticking. And then the feelings fell away. And you found a calmness, a clarity, in the center of your being, and it all seemed like a bit of a necessary cleanse.
You carried on. And the folks you loved and admired rallied back to you. You endured. You survived. And your letting go came across as a sign of strength. As George Harrison once sang: "Life goes on within you and without you."
So, yeah, ok, that was lesson.
