can I really stop explaining myself? even to me?

I think these two quotes hold, jointly, a lesson I keep getting to work on.  I know in my head that I need to let go of what no longer serves me, like I let go of practicing law, but I haven't learned it fully because the lesson keeps coming up. Yesterday I had a brief interaction with a male friend. It might have been an argument; it certainly was a brief exchange full of conflict and misunderstanding.  When I realized this man was telling me he was very angry, then demanding I 'learn' what he insisted I needed to learn, yes, I had a fleeting impulse to defend myself, to explain he was angry because of his misinterpretation of what I had said. But then I decided, "Nah, we've danced this dance a few times. I'd say the same things I've said before, then he will, so I said "I'm out".  He was particularly angry because I had said that he was blaming me for how he felt. He vehemently denied that he was blaming me even tho in his denial, he reiterated how I had been wrong and 'made' him feel very angry.
It felt great to decide we had danced the same futile steps enough times, to disengage, not argue. I just let go of him. When I told him that was what I was going to do, he kinda huffed/pouted and said "Don't expect me to come after you, to ask you to work this out."  I felt no need to respond to that. Let him go, I thought.  I like this man. I love this man. He is, as the quote below suggests, not at my level of perception. He could be an ascended master and me at a low level of enlightenment.  I don't care.  I get to be me and I am perfectly good just as I am. And, I'll be honest, I am certain he is not up to my level of perception, that he has lots more personal work to do to get up here with me.