BKBK
I think you hit the nail square on the head. And after doing research into other frameworks, they DO pass the application's variable scope into other objects in order to share their information. Many also seem to make use of a "Request Context" object that holds data for the current request and can be passed around the different areas of the framework.
I guess ColdFusion doesn't have a "traditional" OOP background, but I believe this SHOULD get me to a point where I can pass the highest tier in and have it available at lower contexts. Thanks!