I stand and watch them, startled by how tall my daughter is next to her teacher.
While riding on the sidewalk, the deliveryman yelled to the couple, "Watch out!" The startled couple, hearing the warning, turned and said, "No, you watch out -- you're supposed to be on the road, not the sidewalk!" The deliveryman had barely managed to stop before the light turned red.
In New Hampshire, Mr. Rath, the New Hampshire Republican leader, said he was startled to watch Democrats coalescing around an opponent after what he described as the least caustic Democratic primary battle he had seen in 40 years in politics.
Startled, she watched his head disappear and the door swing slowly shut.
And Carl P. Paladino, the Republican candidate, startled those watching by accidentally walking off stage during the closing statements, in search of the men's room.
We passed dairy farms and orchards and watched two young deer, startled by the train, leaping high in a field of tall wheat.
I was startled when watching the BBC news in my PJs, during reporting on the Syrian crisis I saw the headline "Mark Darcy is Dead!" But I was also very touched.
Then, on a local farm, miles from anywhere, we jump aboard a sledge pulled by a snow scooter and head off for a madcap adventure into the forest that ends with us buried, laughing, in a snow drift, watched by three rather startled moose.
There was, at the time of my visit, a fascination with the American presidential campaign and incredulity at the candidacy of Donald Trump; as he laced into Hillary Clinton during the second debate, a startled Sudanese watching the feed asked: "This is your election?
We watch its progress now as startled, giggly outsiders, staring in on something which came from us and which we let go.
