One of my closest mates and I have been practising being safe in conversations, usually with heat and tension, for over 50 years. We’ve proven time and again that we never go past the safe place, because our mateship is the most important thing we want to maintain at all times. Our differences of opinion regarding politics and footy teams open up our world to see a bigger and brighter future. We learn plenty from each other. It’s not often that people change their core beliefs – but we can certainly see the big picture with what we learn from each other if we both can listen.