How has showing vulnerability shifted a difficult situation?

How showing vulnerability impacts a difficult situation depends on the moment, and the situation itself. Today’s Daily Question, as I read it anyway, seems to imply that being vulnerable is a good thing, and that it will help shift things to a better outcome. But that door sometimes swings both ways. There’s a time to be vulnerable and time to be anything but.

I once was asked to check on a faulty heating system in a Quaker meetinghouse in a nearby city. It was four o’clock in the morning when I pulled into the unlit parking lot. As I made my way to the building’s entrance, I was suddenly confronted by two very large and very drunk men who were cutting across the property. One was particularly angry for some reason, who was egging his companion to, as he put it, “Knock his lights out,” meaning me. I thought about running, but they were younger and seemingly stronger than me. Instead, I looked directly at the bigger man’s face, who was the closest to me, then stuck out my arm for a handshake, and said, “Good morning.” A few tense seconds followed, as his buddy continued to urge the bigger man to strike me. But instead of shaking my hand, the bigger man grunted something under his breath, made a fist, then gently fist-bumped the top of my outstretched hand as he, and his smaller friend, brushed by my shoulder as they both walked away. Was I being vulnerable, smart, or foolish in that moment? I really don’t know.