Majestic Courthouse Butte near Sedona, Arizona

I sometimes wonder about the best strategies for escaping the day-to-day rat race, how to consider the bigger picture of my life experience and my place in the universe. But then I wonder if such escapism simply represents a luxury I enjoy, a luxury billions of others don't have access to. When you're scrounging for dollars a day trying to feed your family, are you even able to conceive of such things beyond your own tribe's survival? I'm privileged to not know the answer.

Yet I remember Viktor Frankl's book, "Man's Search for Meaning," and his central message: no one can take away meaning in your life; it is the one thing firmly and absolutely within your control. He was subjected to the harshest conditions imaginable—slavery and torture within a Nazi Holocaust concentration camp during World War II. Now, he was educated and established in his profession of psychiatry before his deportation, so perhaps he possessed tools others didn't when dealing with the most extreme diversity possible. But he maintained his self worth, and he maintained hope. It was possible for him to see a bigger picture outside of his daily plight.

Does this mean education is the secret ingredient? Was Frankl better equipped to persevere through horror because he was educated and could think critically? I don't know if this is the definitive answer. I usually attribute a given outcome to a confluence of factors. But it can't hurt. The ability to consider, to think beyond yourself, isn't an innate ability. We are taught to be considerate. Hopefully one's immediate family instills this within a person from a young age, but education expands its context. Education enables people to consider not just others' emotions and perspectives, but also other ideas. With education, one can examine the history of a nation, or the methodology and results of a scientific experiment, with discerning judgement. Education instills the exchange of ideas and measured consideration.

So maybe we start there—maybe we all focus on being considerate, on being aware of the causes and implications of our words and actions. And maybe we all pursue education, in whatever applicable form, regardless of age. Maybe that initiates a cycle of consideration, and maybe that raises our global consciousness. Maybe it enables us to unite humanity, to inspire change. And then maybe, just maybe, we can change the world.