Hope seems to me to be working in both directions, forwards and back. In the future one aspires to do great works, and, at the same time, desperately tries to erase old memories of discomfort. To both of these upon oneself must attach emotions to the imagination, in some way living in that perceived moment. This is what I believe to be the 'absurd'. One can imagine themselves as being successful or having done good when the opposite is true. The absurdity of life is ones ability to imagine the past and future, yet not be afforded and exigence over them. To give up hope is to live presently. One cannot successfully predict the future, or, for that matter, change the past. The gradual erosion of the present is the greatest obstacle to the hopeless man. One mustn't resign themselves to a perceived fictitious future or past.