"Time in the hand is not control of time"

As I stood at the bus stop this morning with my music playing in my ears I tuned into the visual things occurring around me. Every single morning i stand at the same bus stop with a school boy and a pregnant woman who always wears a pink coat. These small details are picked up without very much observation but as I was standing at the bus stop today I observed my fellow bus stop inhabitants and the people driving past in their cars.
Curiously I looked to my right to observe the school boy standing about 7 or 8 feet away form me. I noticed his lips moving but there was nobody there to hear his words. I paused my ipod mid song and listened to the sound which emerged from this boys mouth and I realised he was singing at the top of his voice and he didn't seem to care! I smiled to myself and held in a laugh as I must say this was quite a strange practise to witness at a bus stop at 7:45 in the morning!
I turned my attention next to the lady sitting across the road at the other bus stop. She sits there every morning in a pink coat and navy trousers. I noticed this morning that in the past 4 months I have never once seen her smile. I often wonder where she goes and what she does, there is a certain sense of mystery associated with the pink lady, the choir boy is simply going to school.
As I focused once again on my music another rather hilarious sight crossed my eye line, a fully grown man cycling a child's bicycle wearing a bright red jumper and gardening gloves, what an odd combination in my mind.
The bus arrived shortly afterwards and I got on and sat in my usual seat as I do every morning and I began to think about a topic a discussed with my girlfriend last night, the ever-present issue of time!
Time has become a weight around many of our necks as we all race towards something forgetting to slow down and take in the little details like the colour of a ladies coat or the size of a bicycle which passes us. Instead we are all striving to accomplish things in our lives by a certain age, we set all of these deadlines and for what? So we can enjoy a sense of accomplishment? What use is a sense of accomplishment if it is coupled with a sense of regret, regret that you didn't travel, regret that you never played guitar in an awesome rock band, that you never sang in front of a room full of crazed fans! What use is the huge house and the perfect family and car and money if you missed out on life and the best experiences that is has to offer.
Today I was preoccupied with time and I realised suddenly that having said all of these things I too am preoccupied with time, can we ever escape the ravages of time? Would the world be in complete chaos if we abandoned the age old tradition of time keeping? Probably but shouldn't we use our time wisely and experience all of the joys life has to offer in our own time not in a race of time with society.