OK so I now know there is a way to put all my php files in a single place and have them be able to be included without a filepath by setting an include_path like so:
php_value include_path .:/pathToPHPFiles
OK so now as long as my PHP files are in this directory I can include them from any subdirectory as if they were in the same directory.
I am wondering if there is a trick like this for other file types like .css and .js so I can put them all in single location and embed them in a page without worring about the filepath?